Ilona Kickbusch – “A small group really can make a difference”

When confronting the key issues facing health and health care over the next 20 years, Ilona Kickbusch believes demography cannot be discussed without addressing inequality. As significant portions of the population in the UK, Germany, and Switzerland grow older, Kickbusch says addressing the inequalities of aging is vital. “All of our societies are faced with major demographic change; ageing is one of them, migration is another. But the fact is, usually when we talk about the ageing of society, we don’t look at some deeper social factors that are actually a dimension of that demographic development,” Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Sciana network partner the Careum Foundation says. “Ageing [is] something that is very unequal in our societies. A significant number of people do not have the same amount of healthy life expectancy, so people on the lower social stature will tend to have up to 7 to 10 years less of healthy life expectancy, meaning that they have more chronic disease and disabilities.” Kickbusch explains that while all people are indeed getting older, we are not all living to the same age and with the same level of health thanks to socioeconomic disparities. This challenge of ageing inequity will certainly continue over the next 20 years – making initiatives like the Sciana network invaluable in developing positive change. Reflecting on the international aspect of the collaboration within the Sciana network, Kickbusch, whose key interests have long revolved around health policies and global health, notes: “The interesting thing is that, in the end, very similar issues emerge… I think there is a great opportunity that a group like this can come up with at least a unique framing of some of these issues, or a priority-setting that can be very important and taken forward by the next group. That’s my own experience working in this field for a long time – that a small group really can make a difference.” Although Sciana is in its infancy, Kickbusch says bringing together three European organisations to discuss shared problems in health care, along with a cohort of bright minds, is a very significant step.
“If a certain kind of idea, or manifesto emerges from here, it can really have an impact on discussion in Europe, and maybe even around the world,” she says.