Now the days are noticeably shorter, we emerge from a rather strange summer to a busy Autumn schedule, still dominated by concerns about the latter phases of the pandemic as well as the UN declaration that the global climate situation is ‘code red’. Most of our meetings continue to be on-line.
In this edition we offer news about three major areas of activity and some catch-up on more routine stuff. Firstly, the official launch of the WEAll (well-being economy alliance) Hub for Ireland. This event took place on Oct. 19, a webinar with over 120 attendees and guest speakers, among them, Kate Raworth, whose concept of the doughnut economy has made a significant impact, world-wide. We would see our development of the Irish Hub as being a type of action research (us being Sean, Caroline Whyte of Feasta, David, Peter Doran of Queens University Belfast, Davie Philip from the Cloughjordan ecovillage and Colette Bennet of Social Justice Ireland).It aims to promote a better economic model in the country where our European Charity is based.
Our second major achievement is that, flowing naturally from the three horizons work, which has been ongoing since May 2020, although conceived at least six months before then, we have persuaded Johnson and Johnson Foundation to fund a scoping project for a much larger, three year project, which if it goes ahead, would start next Spring. We have been reporting regularly on the three horizons work since September last year, and a number of you contributed to the collection of data. The Horizon 2 systemic map (path for transformational change from now to a more ideal future for the European health ecosystem) forms the basis of the work, and we aim to work collaboratively with the Foundation, integrating current work they have already initiated on Community health and to also bring in expertise on transformational change from colleagues in the USA.
A third achievement also has a transatlantic element, in that Lars Munter and myself have just completed the curating of our fifteenth and final webinar (having started in February of this year) in the Humanity Rising series from the West Coast on-line Ubiquity University. Our series has showcased the European health ecosystem, and in it we brought together about sixty contributors to provide a genuinely eclectic, wide-ranging perspective: from the high-level view of the WHO, represented by Prof Ilona Kickbusch and former EU Health Commissioner Andriukaitis to grass-roots innovation in mental health; from health viewed via the lens of experts on environmental sustainability to senior civil servants from Scotland and New Zealand discussing their countries implementation of the wellbeing economy. All the webinars are listed with their YouTube recording links on our website ‘Features’ page.
Last but not least, we give you an indication of what you might call ‘bread and butter’ activities going on in parallel with these other projects. Presentations at conferences in Taiwan and England (all online of course) and network building, with two significant MOUs recently signed to create interesting partnerships.
Breakdown or breakthrough: catalysing the wellbeing economy (launch of WEAll Hub, Ireland Oct. 19).
Brief report on proceedings
The event drew an online audience of over 120.
The event started with gentle guitar music of Paddy Flamenco (Paddy Anderson). Davie Philip ( a member of Hub steering group) introduced proceedings with a poem from fellow Cloughjordan resident, poet Mel White
(see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMS6VDB5Yys ).
Mel’s inspiring poem was followed by a presentation from Seán Ó Conláin, also a member of the Hub steering group, on the work done to arrive at this point. He invited everyone to join the journey to create an effective alliance in Ireland on this crucial notion of a different kind of economy. He referred to the work of NESC and the government response, namely, to create a set of national indicators, but suggested that what we need is a transformative action programme, which we can co-create.
Our first guest, Katherine Trebeck, Strategic Advocacy Advisor for WEAll, commented that she was pleased to see so many friends from across the globe, who would be able to support the new Hub. While catch and repair might be offered as a solution, as an economist she argues that we need a new model of the economy – but what should it look like? The ethos of WEAll is all around collaboration. Hubs represent conversations at a local level which can lead to a global vision.
Other presenters included Jennifer Wallace of Carnegie Trust UK and Kate Raworth, well known proponent of the Doughnut Economy. For full details of this event, see separate News item on our Latest News page.
2. Johnson and Johnson Foundation contract
We’re delighted to report that Johnson & Johnson Foundation (Scotland) and EHFF have entered into a seminal collaborative agreement. The purpose of the project, which is initially for six months, is to determine the necessary parameters for a significantly more extensive collaboration to further the work on the transformation of the European health ecosystem. As readers will know, this project was started in May 2020 and was the main focus of our annual strategy meeting at the end of March this year and is continuing. The interest that the preliminary results have generated confirmed for us that this approach, using the three horizons scenario method, is a potentially important direction for EHFF strategically and is genuinely innovative. We see potential not only for EHFF as an organisation but for our role in helping to influence and shape future European healthcare.>
We hope the scoping will lead to a major project which would involve using the three horizons model to implement a process of influencing the transformation of the health ecosystem in a manner which would provide verifiable impact. We hope to partner on this work, among others, the Bounce Beyond Community (https://www.bouncebeyond.global/), formerly the SDG Transformation Forum, with whom we are currently in the final stages of agreeing our partnership arrangements. Watch this space!
3. The completed HR webinar series:
The last five of our extended webinar series show-casing the European health ecosystem ended with five webinars under the general title ‘Conversations with leading edge practitioners on the art of transforming health’ and they ran between September and October. The full list and the links to all of the YouTube recordings is on the EHFF website features page. During this series we used the ‘fireside conversation’ format, so no formal presentation but a lot more exchange of ideas. We’d draw your attention especially to September 23 when three ecowarrior friends spoke on Health and the environment: a view through the lens of environmental sustainability. Recording link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnZTCaQVUycOn October 14th: with the title ‘the future in their hands? Seeking the views of young health professionals on where the European health ecosystem is heading’ we had five young people offer their vision of how to change things for the better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL0HzH5yHQw and finally on October 21st we gathered round the fireside some older friends, two Directors of EHFF and two senior Danish figures associated with Nordic Health 2030 to offer their perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZJKCBp2lcY
4. Recent external activity: some examples
Conference presentations to maintain our profile:
a) two webinars at the IHLA (international health literacy association) Congress Oct. 4/5: example: CEmPaC and the Personal Care Institute.
b) OR63 (Operational Research Society) annual conference: showcasing our 3H work
Expanding Our Network
a) MOU (Memorandum of understanding) with Bounce Beyond. Bounce Beyond (see URL in news item above) is a US based organisation dedicated to transformational change – previously the SDG Transformations Forum. Led by Steve Waddell, known for his publications on Global Action Networks, EHFF would join as a partner specialising in transformation of the health system. We’ll be exploring what this means in practice, linked to our current work.
b) MOU with European Health Parliament year 7 (EHP7). We’ve followed this annual project where sponsors, especially Johnson and Johnson and knowledge partners support 60 young professionals in a six month exercise to put together and present their ideas on future health policy to European Commission Parliamentarians. Last year we were supporters, this year we’ve been accepted as a knowledge partner and we’ll report on what that means in practice during the coming months.
