Science Diplomats Tackling Our Lifestyle Killers

Saturday, 14 February 2015: 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
Room 210G (San Jose Convention Center)
Science-based issues are crucial to the conduct of foreign policy. Countries large and small, developed and developing, express a clear interest in implementing science diplomacy through politics. This is for the purpose of representation, cooperation, resolving disputes, improving systems, and securing the right to science for citizens and our most vulnerable populations. The same applies to global companies and institutions operating in a complex matrix of technical and relational challenges. This symposium will test this theory against the successes and failures of health diplomacy strategies around two challenging issues: global responses to obesity and harm reduction science linked to lifestyle. Elected officials and senior doctors with first-hand insights into real-life best practices and pitfalls encountered in public service will spotlight how new disciplines and voices are being integrated into decision-making. Accepting that societal problems are not necessarily problems with purely scientific solutions, speakers will argue that meeting global challenges demands not only scientific discovery and more data, but greater inclusiveness and dialogue. Their common cause will be to demonstrate that if we accept the potential of science diplomacy as a common currency capable of underpinning today’s multi-stakeholder interactions, we must equally leverage control at the highest levels to remove political barriers that prevent affected populations from accessing services.
Organizer:
Aidan Gilligan, SciCom—Making Sense of Science
Moderator:
Vaughan Turekian, AAAS
Discussants:
Thomas Hartung, Johns Hopkins University and Grace Naledi Pandor, Minister of the South African Department of Science and Technology
Speakers:
Frances A. Colón, Deputy Science and Technology Adviser to U.S. Secretary of State
Building an International Science Diplomacy System
Delon Human, Health Diplomats; Secretary-General of the Africa Medical Association
Health Diplomacy, Science Diplomacy: Tackling Alcohol & Tobacco Addictions
Peter Gluckman, Office for the Prime Minister's Science Advisory Committee, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Health Diplomacy: Science Diplomacy, Human Values and Obesity
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