{"id":83363,"date":"2017-02-26T20:31:01","date_gmt":"2017-02-26T05:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e52.nl\/?p=83363"},"modified":"2017-02-26T20:31:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-26T05:30:08","slug":"tomorrow-is-good-lucien-engelen-how-angela-merkel-sets-the-agenda-for-g20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/tomorrow-is-good-lucien-engelen-how-angela-merkel-sets-the-agenda-for-g20\/","title":{"rendered":"[TOMORROW IS GOOD] Lucien Engelen: How Angela Merkel sets the agenda for G20"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow is good.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>In a weekly column, alternately written by Lucien Engelen, Maarten Steinbuch, Carlo van de Weijer and Daan Kersten, E52 tries to find out what the future will look like. All four contributors<\/a> are \u2013 in addition to their \u2018normal\u2019 groundbreaking work \u2013 linked to the\u00a0SingularityU The\u00a0Netherlands<\/a>, the organization that focuses on spreading knowledge about technologies that can provide solutions to the problems of our time. This Sunday, it\u2019s Lucien Engelen\u2018s turn.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Lucien Engelen<\/strong>
\n\"SU<\/a>Earlier this week I attended the Third International German Forum in Berlin. When I received the personal invitation of Chancellor Merkel I had some doubts at first to be honest. It looked real with the embossed logo etcetera, but was it, or was someone pulling my nose ?<\/p>\n

A check ( I even checked her signature on Wikipedia ;-)) learned it was real and I signed up for a two day forum on IT & Innovation, the war on infectious diseases and the (need for the) rise of awareness for mental health. Chancellor Merkel is planning to take the threat posed by infectious disease as one of the centerpoints of the upcoming German Presidency of the G20.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"brief<\/a>Chancellor Angela Merkel launched this new format in 2013. The aim of the International German Forum is to put in place a network for global learning and to devise common solutions to the issues that will define our future. The First International German Forum was held in 2013 and explored “What matters to people \u2013 quality of life and progress”. The Forum continued in 2015, and focused on “What matters to people \u2013 innovation and society”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over <\/span>120 participants<\/span><\/a> from all over the world flown in to discuss, debate, explore and share ideas, thoughts hunches and sometimes also politics in a real forum setting at the <\/span>Chancellery<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a group with great diversity, in geographical, gender, background and organisations. Being the only representative from the Netherlands I had the chance to meet a lot of different people what already invoked tangible action points with some of the other attendees.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first day had some great presentations from people all over the world i.e. from the ‘Self-employed Women’s Association’ from India, e-health in Canada, Telemedicine in Abu Dhabi and addiction to screens and sugar in South Africa to name few. Next there were 4 working sessions on improving the use of antibiotics, fighting neglect of tropical diseases and overcoming the taboo of mental health. I was assigned to the group about using the potential of ICT in healthcare (surprise ;-)).<\/span><\/p>\n

Due to its diverse setting and the format (World Cafe) we tried to make a foresight on how the future of health will look like. Here we had great debates like who owns the healthdata, what is the role of trust. I must say I have been in sessions like these numerous times, this one was different. Due to the different backgrounds, expertise and also cultural differences and even religion it was a session with great dynamics and insights. Some of them still boggle my mind and my little computer up there is still busy processing them \ud83d\ude09 Like a discussion we had about the level ‘free will’ to share data if you are ‘forced’ to share data because you otherwise can’t afford your healthcare insurance fee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Early evening there were presentations of the three finalists of the ‘Hacking for Global Health’ contest all from Kenya: an app-based micro health insurance scheme, a platform allowing young Kenyans to learn about “taboo” topics, and a messaging service to ensure early referrals of pregnant mothers to skilled health care providers. The jury selected the app-based micro insurance scheme as the overall winner. It addresses low-income parents who get together to set up savings groups to pay for health care for their children. The winning team will receive support to help them further develop their software.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second day kicked of with “innovation spotlights’ from Ghana, the US\/Malaysia, Germany and Switzerland.<\/span><\/p>\n