“Do your candidates think this way?”
It has been two long years since the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the world in what many thought was an unstoppable development trajectory driven by speeding innovations in technology. One of the biggest realizations of this global crisis is the way health, the environment, and the economy must be seen as intimately linked milieus where the breakdown of one triggers a chain reaction that can explode into an existential threat for all of humanity.
“The complexity of health and environmental challenges affects both the security of states and the welfare of its people,” was the opening statement of Prof. Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit, President of think tank Stratbase ADR Institute predicating the theme of its latest series virtual forum, “Convergence of Health and Environment in Shaping the Strategic Policy Agenda of the Next Administration.”
Prof. Manhit underscored the importance of fostering cooperation to address these emerging challenges with the same urgency as conventional security threats and warned that if left unaddressed, “these predicaments will continue to not only lead to major economic losses but also endanger the present and future generations.”
As part of a series of special papers of the think tank, three special papers were launched in the event, offering the most instructive insights and expert advice to whoever are elected to lead the next government.
Dr. Mely Caballero-Anthony, Professor and Head of the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, authored the study, “Non-Traditional Security Threats To Peace And Security In The Indo-Pacific” on the complexity and impact of NTS issues as not only threats to people’s security, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
“In dealing with the complex issues of climate change, governments should set out key policy priorities to address its multifaceted consequences. More efforts must be given to strengthen the adaptive capacity in dealing with its direct impact through enhanced disaster preparedness and response mechanisms and other relevant frameworks,” Dr. Caballero-Anthony said.
Dr. Alma Salvador, Co-convenor of the Department of Political Science-Working Group on Security Sector Reform and Associate Professor of the Ateneo de Manila University stressed the need to adopt a nexus approach to traditional and non-traditional security challenges. She suggests an integrated approach to maritime security and the South China Sea going beyond the maritime dispute to de-securitize the persisting tensions despite the policy of hedging and appeasement by the Duterte administration.
The study titled, “Beyond Health Measures: Towards A Genuine People’s Health Agenda” by doctors (M.D.) Dr. Eleanor A. Jara, Dr. Magdalena A. Barcelon, and Dr. Katharina Anne D. Berza advocates a people-centered health care system catering to the poor founded on equity, social justice, and people’s rights. All social services, goods, and facilities must be available, accessible, culturally acceptable, and of good quality.
Dr. Berza asserted that the public health system must be anchored to the community-based approach to healthcare at all levels and to prioritize free health care services and medicines to the neediest sectors of the population.
Philippine Alliance of Patient Organizations and Co-Convenor of Universal Health Care Watch (UHC Watch), Ms. Maria Fatima Garcia-Lorenzo for her part said that we need leaders with the political will to implement and sustain free integrated healthcare and pointed out the importance of digital technology in realizing an integrated people-centered national healthcare system.
Toby Melissa C. Monsod, PhD, Professor at the University of the Philippines School of Economics, in the special paper “Accelerating Resilience and Climate Change Adaptation: Strengthening the Philippines’ Contribution to Limit Global Warming and Cope with its Impacts”, co-authored with Sara Dr. Jane Ahmed and Dr. Golda P. Hilario, argued that the country should shift from greenhouse gas emissions reductions to the protection and restoration of important ecosystems to substantially strengthen and realize commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Dr. Monsod pointed out that though sixty percent of the population live in coastal zones and approximately 10 million rely on small-scale fishing for food, the marine economy has received scant attention from the national government because of the bias of public investments to rice production.
“The degradation of coastal ecosystems is of particular concern, given their multiple roles, especially in the mitigation and adaptation of climate change,” Dr. Monsod said.
The Executive Director of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, Mr. Renato Redentor Constantino, in his reaction stated that climate action plans need to be a part of a larger transition strategy focused on sustainable, inclusive, and resilient economic strategies that spans several cycles of at least 15 years.
The messages of these experts are clear. To survive the convergence of existential threats, we need a convergence of solutions and actions. The old ways of siloed thinking often disrupted by conflicting interests will not do.
Can the next leaders you vote for think this way?
