Ilona Kickbusch


Ilona Kickbusch is a German political scientist best known for her contribution to health promotion and global health. She is currently adjunct professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.

Early life and education

Kickbusch grew up first in Munich and then in Chennai, India, where her father worked as a diplomat. In 1981, she graduated from the University of Konstanz, Germany, with a PhD in Political Science. During her post-graduate studies, she was supported by a fellowship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Career

Early in her career, Kickbusch contributed to the first academic studies in Germany on consumer-centered health care, the self-help and the women's health movement.
After joining the World Health Organization she was appointed to lead the Global Health Promotion Programme, followed by senior positions at the regional and global level of the organisation. During her time at WHO, she had a distinguished career at both the regional and global level. She was responsible for the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986, a seminal document in public health, as well as for the subsequent global conferences in health promotion. She also initiated the first comparative WHO study of women's health in Europe, Women's Health Counts.
In 1998, Kickbusch joined Yale University to head the new Global Health Program at the Yale School of Public Health until 2004. On returning to Europe, she took up senior positions as chairperson of the World Demographic & Ageing Forum, St Gallen,, and chair of Global Health Europe.
In 1999, Kickbusch was the candidate of the German government for the position of Regional Director, WHO Europe; the post went to Marc Danzon instead.
Since 2008, Kickbusch has been serving as director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. In addition, she teaches regularly at several academic institutions including the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Today, Kickbusch advises organisations, government agencies and the private sector on policies and strategies to promote health at the national, European and international level. She has published widely and is a member of several advisory boards in both the academic and health policy arenas. She has received many awards while contributing to innovations in health throughout her career..
In 2017, Kickbusch co-chaired a health crisis simulation at the G20 Health Ministers meeting in Berlin, together with David L. Heymann from Chatham House. In 2018, she was appointed by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom to serve on the Independent High-level Commission on noncommunicable diseases, co-chaired by President Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay; President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka; President Sauli Niinistö of Finland; Veronika Skvortsova, Minister of Healthcare of the Russian Federation; and Sania Nishtar, former Federal Minister of Pakistan. Also since 2018, she has been serving on the joint World Bank/WHO Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, co-chaired by Elhadj As Sy and Gro Harlem Brundtland.

Policy and research innovations

Health Promotion - Health Society

Kickbusch was also involved in the formulation of the Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World in 2005, and served on the advisory group for the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health 2011. She was the founding editor of the journal Health Promotion International and serves as the chair emerita of the editorial board. She has always been active both in developing implementation strategies, as well as in strengthening the theoretical basis of health promotion. Concerning the latter, she has contributed to the debate by developing the concept of the 'health society' and exploring the links between health and modernity and innovative approaches to governance for health at the national and global level. She was recently lead author of white papers on 'The challenge of addiction' and 'The food system: a prism of present and future challenges for health promotion and sustainable development', and is engaged in a policy glossary on 'Learning for well-being'.

Health in All Policies - Governance for health - Policy innovations for health

In 2007, she was appointed Adelaide Thinker in Residence for the subject area 'Healthy societies' at the invitation of the Premier of South Australia Mike Rann. During this residency, she developed a special 'health lens' approach to Health in All Policies, which has been implemented in South Australia for several years now. She has published and advised widely on HiAP approaches and is considered one of the global leaders in this field. She continues to be involved in a range of hands-on projects regarding Health in All Policies. She has conducted a study for the WHO Regional Office for Europe on 'Governance for health in the 21st century', which is one of the key studies informing the new European policy for health, Health 2020. She is involved in the planning for the 2013 Global Conference on Health Promotion, which will focus on Health in All Policies, and in a range of advisory bodies for the study of the social determinants of health.

The settings approach - Demography and gender

She developed the settings approach to health promotion and initiated programmes such as Healthy Cities, health-promoting schools, healthy workplaces, health-promoting hospitals and health in prisons. Many of these networks are now global and have proved to be a highly sustainable approach to public health action. She also initiated the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study, which has become a global gold standard for measuring child and youth health. At the WHO headquarters she initiated the Healthy Ageing programme and continues to be active in this field as chair of the multidisciplinary World Demographic & Ageing Forum, St Gallen.

Health Literacy

Kickbusch has been a leader in developing the concept of health literacy and seeking to strengthen it through research and programmes. As a result of her initiative, the EU European Health Literacy Survey was created. It presented its results in 2011. She has been an advocate for citizen participation in health and has been instrumental in creating the new European Network On Patient Empowerment. The South Australian and Swiss health literacy alliances were created and based on her proposals.

Global Health Governance

During her time at Yale University she was head of the global health division, one of the first global health programmes and a school of public health. She contributed significantly to shaping the field of global health, particularly with the analysis of global health governance, and headed a major Fulbright Program entitled Health in a Borderless World. Today, she is considered one of the leaders in thinking on global health governance and has made significant suggestions with regard to multi-stakeholder involvement at WHO and partnership-based approaches to global health governance, including the proposal for a Committee C at the World Health Assembly. She provided significant input into EU policy on global health, as well as into the highly innovative Swiss health foreign policy. She also initiated Global Health Europe, a think tank to strengthen Europe's voice in global health.

Global Health Diplomacy

Kickbusch has contributed significantly to the new field of global health diplomacy and has developed a unique approach to executive education in this field, which has gained significant support from the Rockefeller Foundation. Flagship courses are held regularly in Geneva, and have also been conducted in cooperation with local partners in China, Indonesia, Kenya, the USA and Canada. She has published widely on this subject – including a textbook on global health diplomacy – as well as on the wider issues of global health and foreign policy. She is a member of a number of policy networks in this field including the Global Health Diplomacy Network. She is the editor of the Global Health Diplomacy book series, published by World Scientific.

Other activities (selection)

Governmental organizations

Honorary degrees

Books