Human Welfare Conference 2019

Green Templeton College’s annual Human Welfare Conference brings together leading graduate students, academics, and practitioners to engage with the specific challenges and opportunities of systematically improving human welfare in both academic and professional contexts. Encouraging collaboration between researchers from different backgrounds and disciplines, the conference explores new and comprehensive ways to tackle important issues relevant to human welfare.

The 11th Annual Human Welfare Conference will take place on May 17 and 18 2019 at Green Templeton College. This year’s theme is “Innovate: Balancing Interests in Resource-Constrained Settings”.

The conference will focus on solutions being developed at various scales to improve human wellbeing in areas as diverse as poverty alleviation, education, health, and social welfare. Academics, students, and practitioners will offer diverse, interdisciplinary perspectives on tackling the most pertinent issues facing our society today.

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS:

Friday 17 May 2019, 9:30 – 18:15 (followed by formal dinner)

9:30 – 10:00
Registration and networking

10:00 – 10:15
Welcome address by Principal Denise Lievesley and co-chairs Rachel Dixon and Anna Vasylyeva.

10:15 – 11:45 – David Watson Memorial Lecture
‘The role of higher education and innovations in preparing students for working in resource-constrained settings’
Goski Alabi, Vice-Chair, African Network for Internationalization of Education, Ghana

11:45 – 12:00
Conference poster session

12:00 – 13:30
Lunch and poster session

13:30 – 15:00 – Parallel panel discussions

‘Health: what kinds of innovation will drive future improvements in health?’

Mara Airoldi, Green Templeton College Research Fellow; Director of the Government Outcomes Lab (GO Lab) at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
Nick Fahy, Green Templeton College Research Fellow; Senior Researcher at Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford.
Alexander Finlayson, Green Templeton College Doll Fellow; CEO and Head of Product at Nye; GP.
Kokila Lakhoo, Consultant Paediatric Surgeon, Children’s Hospital in Oxford and University of Oxford; Chair of the International Forum, British Association of Paediatric Surgeons; President, Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery.

‘How can investment drive human welfare improvements?’

Mouhamadou Diagne, Inspector General of The Global Fund.
Thierry Martin, Executive Director (a Swiss private bank funded by Kuwaiti capital); Bachelor in Finance (Geneva University); former Major (Swiss Army). He is speaking in a private capacity and not on behalf of the bank where he is Executive Director.
Boya Wang, Research Fellow, Saïd Business School; Quantitative Lead for the Ownership Project at Oxford Saïd.

15:00 – 15:30
Coffee break and networking

15:30 – 17:-00 – Panel
‘Eating in a changing world system: balancing food, health and the environment’

Maria Jose Alencastro, Food Security Technical Coordinator – Research and Innovation, Action Against Hunger
Thomas Cousins, Associate Professor in the Social Anthropology of Africa, University of Oxford; Fellow of St Hugh’s College
Karin Eli, Senior Research Fellow, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick; Research Affiliate, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford; Research Associate, SOAS Food Studies Centre, SOAS, University of London.

17:00 – 18:15 – Keynote speaker
‘What are the challenges in human welfare and what should solutions look like?’
Soledad Nuñez Mendez, Former Minister of Housing (Paraguayan Government); MPP student (University of Oxford).

18:30 – 19:00
Drinks reception

19:00 – 21:00
Dinner.

Saturday 18 May, 9:30 – 15:45

9:30 – 10:00
Registration / check-in and networking

10:00 – 10:05
Welcome / recap by co-chairs Rachel Dixon and Anna Vasylyeva.

10:05 – 11:35 – Speaker session
Innovations in health

‘Doing research together with stakeholders to design a human resource innovation’
Mike English, Associate Fellow of Green Templeton; Professor of International Child Health, Centre for Tropical Medicine & Global Health, University of Oxford; Senior Research Fellow of KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Nairobi.

LIFE Project: Making healthcare training possible without boundaries’
Chris Paton, Group Head, Global Health Informatics, University of Oxford.

11:45 – 12:30
Student speaker session

Shailen Popat, Data Collection and Teacher Wellbeing
Acheampong Atta-Boateng, n-hBiostimulants: future of food security in a circular economy
Maheswar Satpathy, Equity, fairness and justice in protection of health in marginalized populace in India – towards an entitlement-focused capability development model

12:30 – 13:45
Lunch and networking

12:45 – 13:45
Parallel sessions

Poster session

Innovation Workshop
Victoria Ma, Executive Member, Organising Innovation Workshop
Dennis West, Co-Founder, Organising Innovation Network

14:00 – 15:30 – Closing Lecture
‘How can we balance resources for education among urban and rural communities?’
Mihai Lupu, Founder of EduCaB

15:30 – 15:45
Closing remarks, announcement of the People’s Choice Award winners & HWC Drive to Action

Free lunch will be provided to registrants on both Friday and Saturday of the conference.