On 21 October the Values20 (V20) group, an international collective of values experts and practitioners who actively seek to engage with the Group of 20 (G20), launched their communiqué during the V20 summit at the Green School in Bali, Indonesia.
The communiqué calls on the G20 to accelerate their work to be more value aware, create the conditions for a deeper human connection to deliver the G20 agenda in three domains: delivering economic prosperity, promoting good governance and enabling good quality of life for all, including combating stigma which still exists around dementia. This includes following through on their 2017 commitment to develop a national dementia plan. The V20 communiqué will subsequently be submitted to the G20 in preparation for the summit on 15-16 November in the hope of influencing the commitments of the G20 and their vision for the future.
Covering 60% of the world’s population and 80% of global gross domestic product, the G20 is an influential multilateral body which is comprised of many of the world’s major developing and emerging economies. The V20 aims to add a depth to the understanding of values and human-centred public policy.
DY Suharya, ADI Regional Director for Asia Pacific, who is Co-lead of the V20 Well-being Task Force, said:
“Our task force members have worked tirelessly from around the world these past few months and came up with three suggested sub-chapters on survival, resilience, psychological well-being in network society, emerging public health emergency and acceptance of mental health including the focus on healthy ageing and dementia. In 2017, all Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) committed to develop a national dementia plan – yet many Member States who are members of the G20 are still to follow through on this commitment.”
The world looks at the G20 for guidance and leadership but it can only do so when its members follow through on the promises they have made. To best showcase their reputation as global thought leaders, they should start by developing and implementing national dementia plans as part of the commitment to bring values.
Stefano Petti as one of the founding members of Values20 and Partner at Asterys a global development firm in Italy, facilitated the well-being session on day 2. Speakers included Carina Joe, Senior Scientist at Jenner Institute Oxford University and Co-inventor of AstraZeneca Vaccine; Maliha Hashmi, Well-being Task Force Co-Lead and WEF Global Future Council Expert; Vic Magdaraong, Senior Business Advisor Development Dimension at Daya Dimensi Indonesia; Maharani Kertapati, Head of Research at Daya Dimensia Indonesia.
DI and its members have historically had a successful relationship with the G20, having coordinated a campaign to include dementia within the Okayama Declaration during Japan’s presidency in 2019 through the C20 workstream.
There are now three years left until the completion of the Global action plan on the public health response to dementia 2017-2025. ADI hopes that G20 nations will take note of this communiqué and its findings, and seek to address the growing public health crisis that dementia presents at the local, national and global level.
