Dear reader,
The very start of this epic year 2020 and decade has been dramatic with tense geopolitical positions and with the number of people affected by violent conflict on the rise. This development risk is impeding the progress towards achieving the SDGs, and in turn, creating inequalities and injustice that continue to fuel conflicts. These challenges demand better evidence of opportunities to break the vicious circle. It is therefore with great contentment I can state that the work of the ‘Lancet-SIGHT commission on peaceful societies through health and gender equality’ is now progressing.
The commission seeks to examine the interlinkage between SDG3 on health and well-being, SDG5 on gender and SDG16 on peace, justice and strong institutions with the aim of identifying mechanisms to promote peaceful societies. It will look at the impact of improved health and gender equality and the role of the institutions that shape them in promoting a just peace.
The starting of 2020 makes me even more convinced that the work of the Lancet-SIGHT Commission is needed right now. In addition to conflicts between Iran-USA, the situation in Syria and Yemen, we have a new Corona virus getting close to pandemic spread, which once again puts governance and global health at the forefront and the importance of combating corruption and embrace transparency and trust.
SIGHT’s mission is to identify, synthesise and analyse scientific results and data to deliver evidenced-informed policy in global health in alignment with Agenda 2030 and give recommendations based on research and evidence. The Lancet-SIGHT commission consolidates this mission well. It is a great honour to convene excellent commissioners and researchers/analysts together in working groups to this important work with The Lancet and with Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland as chair.
The collaborative work among both young and senior people within this Commission is a joy and challenge. The mix of political-, gender-, health, and peace disciplines, to name a few, brings data together from several angles enabling us to make novel contributions and conclusions.
We also want to contribute with the Nordic perspective and will do our best to provide salient recommendations based on multi-level perspectives. It is my hope that this commission will challenge and be “irritants” to systems driven by lazy doctrines and provide actionable findings for policy makers.
Please join us in this endeavor at the SIGHT webpage and Twitter #LancetSIGHT to follow the work and share your input.
