On 2nd December 2020, Thomas S. Axworthy, Secretary General of the InterAction Council, gave the welcoming remarks for the launch of the Digital Platform for Planet Place and People, which aims to Create a Common Good to Secure a Healthy Planet for All. The Platform for Planet Place and People – P4PPP – provides an open access platform with a range of digital technologies that enable the virtual delivery of public health and planetary health systems – to anyone and any country in the world.
This Digital Platform is a collaborative initiative, which has evolved into a partnership between the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health and the InterAction Council with a range of wider partners, and welcomes further partnerships to expand this initiative going forward. Professor Vajira Dissanayake from Sri Lanka, described the Commonwealth Ministers context and the development of the Platform for Planet Place and People as the first hub for the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health.
Dr. Jo Nurse, Strategic Advisor for the InterAction Council and Health Systems Director for the P4PPP, has been instrumental in the design of this Digital Platform following the high-level meeting chaired by IAC co-chair Bertie Ahern in Edinburgh, to enable collaborative action to advance the InterAction Council’s Charter for One Health and Manifesto to Secure a Healthy Planet for All. Dr. Nurse stated that “the Digital Revolution can play a significant and transformational role in responding to our multiple and complex global challenges, by promoting innovative solutions, enabling collaborative and co-ordinated responses to address Pandemics, and to scale up digital solutions to strengthen capacity and multi-sector responses for our Planetary Emergency.”
The P4PPP was created by a team of Sri Lankan Commonwealth Digital Health Fellows who provided a ‘Walk-through’ of the Digital Platform – including the digital foundations of the Platform, and an illustration of the process of searching for and submitting innovative, open access digital tools for Planet Place and People. The Platform will expand the Planet and Place components over the next year, enabled by a new team of digital fellows at the University of Southampton Hub. Wider Partners are also invited to submit frugal innovations and digital technologies for low resource settings onto the Platform.
The Panel Discussion covered Digital solutions for the COVID-19 Pandemic, by Professor James Batchelor, Director Health Informatics-P4PPP, followed by Future Trends in Digital Solutions and Infrastructure by Malcolm Johnson, Deputy Secretary General, of the International Telecommunications Union. Opportunities to scale up digital responses with Commonwealth countries and partners were outlined, by Dr. Nicholas Watts, Chair of the Independent Forum of Commonwealth Organisations, with the development of a forward strategy to be presented in the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2021. Lastly, Ella Robertson from One Young World, spoke about empowering our younger generation as leaders, including creating innovative and digital solutions to overcome our global challenges.
Please visit the Platform for Planet Place and People – P4PPP at: p4ppp.cwcdh.org
