Front row, from left to right: The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull (29th Prime Minister of Australia), Prof. Syaru Shirley Lin (Chair of the Board, CAPRI), Prof. José Manuel Barroso (Chair of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance), Prof. Michelle Williams (Dean, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health), Prof. Chang-Chuan Chan (Director, CAPRI)
Back row, from left to right: Caroline Fried (Research Associate, CAPRI), Cecilia Yin (Chief Administrative Officer, CAPRI), Prof. Harry Harding (Director, CAPRI) Dr. Patricia Geli, (Executive Director, Reform for Resilience Commission, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health), Siwei Huang (Research Associate, CAPRI)
The CAPRI team and members of its board of directors traveled to Singapore to attend the Global Health Security Conference 2022 (GHS2022), during which the Reform for Resilience Commission’s co-chairs and hubs met in person for the first time. We spent an afternoon on the sidelines of the conference discussing the commission’s strategic direction, research, and convening for 2023. We look forward to expanding the Commission’s work to improve resilience across sectors and disciplines worldwide.
The commission’s co-chairs Malcolm Turnbull, Michelle Williams, and José Manuel Barroso also spoke in the conference session “Building Future Resilience for Pandemics and Climate Change,” where they highlighted the linkages between public health and the climate crisis. Our team had the opportunity to meet other Reform for Resilience advisors and commissioners who were in attendance at the conference as well.
From left to right: Dr. Patricia Geli, The Hon. Mr. Malcolm Turnbull, Prof. Michelle Williams, Prof. José Manuel Barroso
The GHS2022 conference served as a call to action for whole-of-society collaboration, as global health and the climate crisis are urgent issues that will leave no nation unaffected. From the GHS2022 conference emerged a strong consensus emerged that as the world reopens, the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic should not be merely water under the bridge. CAPRI is answering this call through its mission to strengthen collaboration among civil society, industry, government, and academia to promote best policy practices that address the world’s most urgent challenges, from pandemic preparedness to sustainable growth.
Throughout the four-day conference, the CAPRI team attended presentations, workshops, and keynotes on issues ranging from health system strengthening to global one health governance, policy advocacy, and combating misinformation, as well as an announcement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of a new Financial Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response established by the World Bank and the World Health Organization.
The CAPRI team with The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull (fourth from the left) and Prof. Adam Kamradt-Scott (Executive Director of the European Hub of the Reform for Resilience Commission, right)
The CAPRI team with Prof. Yik Ying Teo (Dean of the Saw Swee Hok School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, center)