Sustainability in Healthcare and Education: Global Challenges and Solutions

Climate change impacts on health in multiple ways. This meeting will focus on three different but related areas that highlight challenges, stress the importance of the youth voice and, importantly, suggest positive ways forward.

Day 1 takes as its theme ‘Oral Health’. It examines the much-welcomed approaches of the World Health Organisation that are embodied in the recently adopted 2021 WHO Oral Health Resolution, and in the draft Global Strategy for Oral Health. The speakers will provide examples of national plans and ongoing activities in low and middle-income countries, highlight multisectoral efforts to address Noma, and present innovative ‘new ways of thinking and working’ around sustainability in delivery of oral and dental care, with a focus on essential medicines, minimal intervention and disease prevention.

Day 2 focuses on the integration of sustainability and planetary health in educational programmes for health workforce training. Throughout the 2020 / 2021 academic year, dental students from 21 dental schools around the world, and members of oral health organisations have been working in partnership on a project that considers oral health in the context of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Participating students and groups will present their own unique perspectives from their national perspective providing a ‘snapshot of dentistry and oral health care’ around the world. Their conclusions will help to inform how we can collectively pursue the aims and ambitions of the WHO Oral Health Resolution. The issues will be discussed from the perspective of both staff and students across a variety of professional groups, culminating in the launch of a Student / Youth Manifesto for Sustainable Oral Health.

Day 3 is focused on empowering children from schools across the globe to become the main actors of change in addressing the challenge of climate change. Mountains are the “water towers of the world”, but climate change is impacting mountains and affecting the availability of water almost globally. Children alongside UN agencies will present and discuss their actions to improve, support and empower children’s education regarding their role in water and mountain conservation in the face of rapidly changing mountain environments and ecosystems. Sessions will also highlight the opportunities to rethink mountain tourism and its impact on natural resources and livelihoods, to manage it better, and to harness it towards a more resilient, green and inclusive future. It will draw from local government experiences in coordinating action on climate change that engages and empowers schools, communities, key actors and groups. The final session will feature the launch of a call to action: ‘Mountains, the water towers of our world. Children’s call to action to protect mountain areas against the impacts of climate change’.

The full schedule for the three days can be viewed here.