Healthy Living
Introduction
The links between healthy populations, productive workforces and economic growth is well established. Worldwide, $47 trillion of cumulative output loss can be expected in the next two decades due to chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health disorders. Already 36 million deaths annually or more than 60% of global deaths are due to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. However, 80% of cardiovascular problems and 40% of cancers can be prevented by tackling key risk factors.
Effective prevention of NCDs will require exceptional levels of collaboration among stakeholders and across sectors (health, finance, education, media, sports, agriculture, urban planning, public transportation, recreational industry, etc). Alignment of objectives and coordination of efforts across stakeholders is necessary to deliver high impact solutions to enable healthy lives and for the prevention and control of NCDs.
The Healthy Living Initiative aims to bring together governments, private sector and civil society to have a positive and measurable impact on healthy living and NCDs by catalysing multistakeholder collaborations to support healthy, active lives for individuals, communities and societies.
A key element of the Initiative is the Charter for Healthy Living. As part of the Charter’s development, the Forum engaged over 150 leaders of government, business, civil society, international organizations and academia in multistakeholder consultations held in Mexico, the United States, Switzerland, Thailand and India. 30 one-on-one executive-level interviews were conducted with cross-sector global leaders.
This Charter highlights the widespread conviction that multistakeholder efforts are the key to transforming the current health landscape, in which non-communicable diseases are a main source of mortality, morbidity and lost economic output.
The Charter outlines specific focus areas for multistakeholder action, provides principles for a shared mindset for collaborative actions, calls for stakeholders to build on their core roles and competencies to advance the healthy living agenda and stresses the importance of continuously monitoring and evaluating the actions implemented.
The Charter is supported by step-by-step guidelines, hands-on templates and case studies presented in the Toolkit for Multistakeholder Action.
Annex Multistakeholder Collaboration for Healthy - Living Toolkit for Joint Action
To assist stakeholders in initiating and managing multistakeholder actions for Healthy Living, the Forum and the Pan American Health Organization, in collaboration with Bain & Company, have developed the “Toolkit for Multistakeholder Action”. The Toolkit is based on a simple six-block framework to help collaborations structure and progress with their joint work.The Toolkit includes a detailed Annex. The Annex provides hands-on templates and practical resources designed to summarize key data and information for Healthy Living collaborations in a simple and user-friendly manner. The one-...
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January 17, 2013
Multistakeholder Collaboration for Healthy - Living Toolkit for Joint Action
To assist stakeholders in initiating and managing multistakeholder actions for Healthy Living, the Forum and the Pan American Health Organization, in collaboration with Bain & Company, have developed the “Toolkit for Multistakeholder Action”. The Toolkit is based on a simple six-block framework to help collaborations structure and progress with their joint work. It provides step-by-step guidelines, hands-on templates, practical resources and case studies to illustrate solutions to the core challenges of multistakeholder actions at the local, national or global level. Read the...
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January 17, 2013
Charter for Healthy Living - A report from the World Economic Forum’s Healthy Living Initiative
This report presents the Charter for Healthy Living. The Charter’s main goal is to bring together public, private and civil society actors to deliver concrete multistakeholder actions that enable individuals, families and communities worldwide to lead healthy and active lives. To progress towards this goal, the Charter outlines specific focus areas for multistakeholder action, provides principles for a shared mindset for collaborative actions, calls for stakeholders to build on their core competencies to advance the healthy living agenda and stresses the importance of continuously monitoring...
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January 17, 2013
Ask a Leader 2012 - Julie Gerberding
Julie Gerberding, President, Merck Vaccines responds to the Ask a Leader campaign at the Annual Meeting Davos, Switzerland 25-29 January 2012.
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April 18, 2012
Well-being and Global Success
Throughout the world, people are looking for new models of progress. For many decades the dominant model has been economic growth, and that remains important. But, as David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has said, “economic growth is only a means to an end”. The end is well-being.
Today, we have a new body of science that shows just how many other factors are also important for well-being. That is why the OECD has for several years been attempting to redefine progress, and why in July 2011, the UN General Assembly advocated more priority for policies that promote happiness.
To...
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February 8, 2012
Special Meeting on Economic Growth and Job Creation in the Arab World
Dead Sea, Jordan 21-23 October 2011Special Meeting on Economic Growth and Job Creation in the Arab World Recent shifts in the Arab world coupled with an economic contraction at the global level have created a new urgency for decision-makers across the region: the need to address the fundamental conditions required to revive growth and support human development.Now more than ever, it is critical to match employment, entrepreneurship and education prospects with the aspirations of young populations. This has clearly become a key in the decisions taken by government, industry and civil...
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October 21, 2011
The Workplace Wellness Alliance - Investing in a Sustainable Workforce
Over the past three years the World Economic Forum has successfully worked towards the goal of improving health and well-being through the Workplace Wellness Alliance (the Alliance), a consortium of companies committed to advancing wellness in the workplace. Established in response to a call for action at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2008, the Alliance has continued to grow and evolve in terms of membership base and relevance. It is the stated objective of the Alliance to improve global health and productivity by making wellness a priority, starting in the workplace.
In the year...
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September 19, 2011
The Global Economic Burden of Non-communicable Diseases
Non-communicable diseases have been established as a clear threat not only to human health, but also to development and economic growth. Claiming 63% of all deaths, these diseases are currently the world’s main killer. Eighty percent of these deaths now occur in low- and middle-income countries. Half of those who die of chronic non-communicable diseases are in the prime of their productive years, and thus, the disability imposed and the lives lost are also endangering industry competitiveness across borders.
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September 19, 2011
Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2011
Dalian, People's Republic of China 14-16 SeptemberMastering Quality GrowthThe Annual Meeting of the New Champions, the “Summer Davos”, is the foremost global business gathering in Asia. Introduced in 2007 in close collaboration with the People’s Republic of China and with the personal support of Premier Wen Jiabao, the 2010 Meeting in Tianjin convened 1,300 participants, including over 400 CEOs from Forum Partner and Member companies together with up-and-coming leaders from business, politics, science and technology from 80 countries. In 2011, there was even stronger participation with over 1...
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September 14, 2011
World Economic Forum on East Asia 2011
Jakarta, Indonesia, 12-13 June 2011Responding to the New Globalism
Robust economic growth and an improved investment climate have underpinned the economic recovery of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), buoyed by an emerging market of nearly 600 million consumers. The planned economic integration by 2015 will see ASEAN emerge as the world’s 10th largest economy. As Chair of ASEAN in 2011, its largest economy and a member of the G20, Indonesia is the ideal location to host the 20th anniversary of the World Economic Forum on East Asia, convening leaders from business,...
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June 12, 2011
World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia 2011
Vienna, Austria, 8-9 June 2011
Expanding the Frontiers of Innovation
Europe and Central Asia 2011 - From Lisbon to VladivostokThis video was first aired in the Opening Plenary of the World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia.The diverse yet highly interdependent economies of Europe and Central Asia have reached a critical juncture. While the advanced economies of the European Union are experiencing fiscal austerity and slower growth, emerging economies further east and in Central Asia are grappling with the pressures of rapid growth.All the...
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June 8, 2011
World Economic Forum on Africa 2011
Cape Town, South Africa, 4-6 May 2011From Vision to Action, Africa’s Next Chapter “Partnerships are desirable and necessary and have worked well for us,” Tanzanian President Jakaya M. Kikwete told participants in a session on innovative partnerships for development. Added Kofi Annan “Our vision is not just to help farmers to feed themselves but also to feed the markets so Africa can become part of the global food security system. This is not a pipe dream.”News Release | Livestreamed SessionsDespite long-standing commercial ties with Europe, Africa now conducts half its trade with...
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May 4, 2011
World Economic Forum on Latin America 2011
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 27-29 April 2011
Laying the Foundation for a Latin American Decade
World leaders tapped into the Social Media Corner at Rio de Janeiro to share their session highlights and discuss the ideas and actions they would take away.
Thoughts on Global Governance by Moises Naim,
Senior International Economics Program at Carnergie Endowment
Take-aways on womens development by Laura Liswood,
Secretary General of the Council of Women World Leaders
Talking Global Risks by Arturo Condo,
President of INCAE Business School
Watch all the regions most influential...
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April 27, 2011
Combating Chronic Disease
35 million people die every year due to chronic diseases
Chronic disease is no longer a “rich man’s” burden: more than 80% of deaths are in the developing world
There is a fundamental injustice as many of these deaths are preventable
More information on the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011: http://www.weforum.org
Davos, Switzerland, 27 January 2011 – With success comes chronic disease. Or so it seems, as developing countries
struggle with one of the consequences of rising wealth and economic success: the devastating toll of diabetes, cancer, lung and heart
disease.
“Chronic disease...
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January 27, 2011
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011
Browse the ReportSession VideosHighlights from Saturday 29 JanuaryHighlights from Friday 28 JanuaryHighlights from Thursday 27 JanuaryHighlights from Wednesday 26 JanuaryQuotes from Meeting ParticipantsThe Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters is perhaps best known to the world at large simply as "Davos". It is much more than a simple get-together of global leaders from many fields in a Swiss ski resort, however.The Annual Meeting provides a rethinking of our systems and exploration of strategies and solutions that have positive transformational implications. For...
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January 26, 2011
Global Health
Health is one of the World Economic Forum’s key focus areas as it is directly aligned with the Forum’s mission: Committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in shaping the global, regional and industry agendas. The Forum focuses on three key health-related activities: advocacy, dialogue and action through partnership.The Forum recognises health as an important part of long-term economic development and engages its members and other stakeholders to advocate health as an investment.Health is an issue that involves multiple stakeholders – intergovernmental organisations,...
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October 20, 2010
A Charter for Health Data
Endorsing the Global Health Data Charter The current list of organizations that endorsed the Global Health Data Charter can be found here. Should your organization be interested in endorsing this Charter and adding its name to the 'Global Health Data Charter Endorsement' document, kindly contact: datacharter@weforum.org.Background to the IssueFinding accurate data can be a serious problem in developing countries and this limits the ability of policy makers to plan and provide appropriate levels of healthcare services. The main problem with data is that it is often incomplete...
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October 20, 2010
Innovative healthcare delivery models
Finding solutions for some of the health problems that we face will require a new approach. For endemic conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, there needs to be a way of incentivizing major pharmaceutical companies to find affordable treatments for people on a low income. As chronic and non-communicable disease rates continue to climb, governments, private sector, and non-governmental organizations are wrestling with how to provide, disseminate, and pay for adequate prevention and treatment.The general agreement is that the old model of delivery is not sustainable in the...
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October 20, 2010
Workplace Wellness Alliance
Workforces today are threatened by ageing and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) – mainly cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic pulmonary disease, diabetes and mental ill-health. In parallel, demand for human capital is rising as economies grow and mature, and significant talent gaps of up to 45 million employees in Western Europe alone are forecast for 2030. These two trends form a vicious circle of dwindling workforce capacity and productivity.NCDs are forecast to cost a total of US$ 47 trillion over the next 20 years. Against this backdrop, preserving the health and productivity of the...
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October 20, 2010
Chronic Diseases: A Global Challenge
Chronic Diseases: A Global ChallengeSixty percent of all deaths are caused by chronic diseases such as heart disease, strokes and diabetes. And it is not just a rich-country phenomenon. Some 80% of cases of chronic disease are occurring in developing countries. So, the question is: how can public and private sectors work together more effectively to manage chronic diseases?Key Points• Chronic disease is treatable, but new strategies are needed; the reasons behind the surge in chronic disease levels must also be understood• Any new strategy requires far greater coordination of...
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January 27, 2010
Genomics of Disease
Genomics of Disease• George M. Church • Francis S. Collins • Richard LiftonModerated by • Robert M. WinstonSaturday 26 JanuaryWhat we know about the genetic links of disease has already helped in the development of medical therapies for large populations. The current genomic revolution will help tailor therapies to individuals and enable the discovery of therapies for rare diseases. Within the next five years, scientists expect to understand the primary reasons for virtually all common diseases.Some insights from this session:• The sequencing of the human genome is already beginning to bear...
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January 26, 2008
Death, Disease and Dirty Water
Death, Disease and Dirty Water·
Luke Alphey
·
Michel Kazatchkine
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Pardis Sabeti
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Jasmine M. WhitbreadModerated by ·
David E. BloomSaturday 26 JanuaryTwo centuries ago, Benjamin Franklin observed: "When the well runs dry, we know the worth of water." Today, some experts argue that "water will be the oil of the 21st century." Yet, no one, it has been said, has ever died from lack of oil. And, in much of the world, it is water in the well that sickens children and spreads lethal disease.Participants in this session discussed the relationship of water and health....
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January 26, 2008
