Date & Time
12:00pm, 21 October 2024 - 1:30pm, 21 October 2024Location
Tanoa Tusitala Hotel, Beach Road, Apia, SamoaAbout the event
This interactive session spotlighted trailblazing grassroots initiatives that led the way to greater climate and health justice. We sought to understand how pioneering tactics from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific could be supported, replicated, and scaled Commonwealth-wide. Alongside an intergenerational and indigenous panel, we explored the central importance of youth advocacy, how community-driven approaches influenced national and global policies, and how vulnerable communities, including indigenous peoples and those living in the Global South, were fairly represented and heard in policymaking. All participants had the opportunity to actively engage, share insights, and contribute to the conversation.
Photo: School Strike
Guests
Dr. C. James Hospedales is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, with 30 years’ experience in public health in the Caribbean, Latin America, UK and USA. He was Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, 2013-2019, Coordinator of non-communicable diseases in PAHO/WHO, 2006-2012, and Director of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre 1998-2005. In 2020, he founded the EarthMedic and EarthNurse Foundation for Planetary Health to mobilise health professionals worldwide to address the climate crisis. He chairs the Defeat-NCD Partnership Executive Committee and Co-chairs the Research for Action on Climate and Health in the Caribbean Project. He played key roles in the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit on NCDs.
Sir Collin Fonotau Tukuitonga KNZM is a prominent Niuean-born New Zealand doctor and public health advocate, known for his work in reducing health inequalities for Māori and Pasifika people. He was knighted in 2022 for his services to Pacific and public health. Sir Collin has held influential roles such as Director General of the Pacific Community, WHO Commissioner, Chief Executive of the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, and Director of Public Health. He established Pacific Language weeks and the Niue Culture and Arts Festival. During the Covid crisis, he was a key advocate for Pasifika communities. Currently, he is Associate Dean Pacific, Associate Professor of Population Health, and Director of University Research at the University of Auckland’s Centre for Pacific and Global Health.
Archana Soreng hails from the Khadia Tribe in Odisha, India, and is an advocate for climate justice, youth, and Indigenous peoples. From 2020-2023, she served as a Youth Advisor to the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, as part of the inaugural Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. In 2024, Archana was recognized as a Skoll Forum Fellow, further cementing her role in global climate leadership. She is a member of the Climate Advisory Council of the Rockefeller Foundation and sits on the steering committee of the Youth Climate Justice Fund. Additionally, Archana is the Asia Youth Lead for a Global Coalition of Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and Afro-Descendant Communities. Her work focuses on the intersections of climate justice, Indigenous People, and empowering young people in the fight for a sustainable future.
Steph Harvey, a Bidjara woman from Queensland, is one of Australia’s leading third-sector executives with a career that spans government, community and the not-for-profit sectors across priority areas in Australia and internationally including gender equity and women’s safety, people trafficking and other transnational crimes and the right to self-determination for First Peoples. Steph is the CEO of Community First Development, a First Nations’ led development and research organisation that is committed to the ‘by community, for community’ approach. Steph is a compelling keynote speaker and panellist, and a highly experienced non-executive director, currently serving on the Board of Australian Regional and Remote Community Services (ARRCS) and the Healing Foundation, and is a member of the First Nations’ Advisory Committee for Philanthropy Australia. She is committed to social and economic equity, peacebuilding, Indigenous-led sustainable land practices and the right to self-determination for all people.
Suluafi Brianna Fruean is a Climate Activist, who has been leading projects since learning about the effects of climate change and noticing the changes to her island of Samoa as a child. At just 11, she became climate organization 350.org’s youngest country coordinator, and at 16, she became the youngest winner of the Commonwealth Youth Award. Growing up in the climate movement Brianna has been involved in all areas of climate justice, from grassroots to government.
Discussion
Location
Tanoa Tusitala Hotel, Beach Road, Apia, Samoa
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