Multi-sectoral collaboration- a prerequisite for sustainable health

“As we navigate through our academic courses and prepare to soon join the professional field of health, a stream of thoughts go through our minds. We are beyond excited to go out there and contribute to health as much as we can. However, we are not even sure if our contribution will be enough amidst the overwhelming sea of health challenges.” Sharifah and Alma

Being young in a time when the world is transforming faster than we can imagine is thrilling as societies grow rapidly, and unfamiliarity becomes the new familiar. The challenges we face today are drastically different from before, and likewise are the tools and future we behold. We are two young people from Uganda and Sweden studying to become health care professionals in a time when , illness, transmission of diseases  and health threats will rapidly shift over the upcoming decades.

From two different corners of the world,  we imagine a future where our  descendants’ progress in health care continues and our population fosters thriving individuals across countries, regions and continents. But the current trend is alarming. We are worried. We are worried about the various bottlenecks that stand in the way of attaining sustainable health. We are worried about the past decades of global warming, existing and  inequalities, wars, conflicts, and most recently the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which has illuminated the fragility of our healthcare systems and the urgent need for transformation to realise the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Achieving them, would mean a brighter future for us all.. The SDGs highlight the intricate puzzle of health and how we need multisectoral and interdisciplinary approaches to achieve good health and well-being for all.  As an avenue of achieving Agenda 2030, and in particular sustainable health, one of the most salient ways forward is through multisectoral collaboration. Multisectoral is an upcoming, popular word. But what does it even mean to promote, work and embody multisectoral work for the achievement of sustainable health?

Most often, each profession works in solitude to improve society. Engineers focuses on infrastructure. Doctors on medicine . Teachers on improving the knowledge of our citizens. Justice movements on enhancing equality.   collaboration offers us the ability to integrate the efforts to achieve advancements faster and more efficiently, creating solutions that will last longer and as such be more sustainable. We often forget that health is a broader concept that goes beyond the clinics and hospitals.  For instance, one of the components of SDG 3 is to prevent water-borne diseases, which can be achieved by ensuring clean water and sanitation through improved infrastructure. The success across the SDGs goes even further, where inequalities are reduced and access to education is improved as girls have access to clean water to properly manage their periods and not miss out of school which in the long-run contributes to economic growth, healthier children and more empowered women.

Multisectoral collaboration needs to become a backbone in all innovation processes. The synergy examplified above illustrates the opportunities we have if we join forces together. Platforms and systems need to be created and enhanced to ensure that the health perspectives are accounted for across sectors in society. We need to move away from processes where other professions come in at the end,when only the decor of the projects can be changed and rather let the collaboration begin at the moment idea starts to spark Throughout these processes, it is critical that we learn to communicate across disciplines and listen actively to the perspectives of others , to maximise the efficiency of our collaboration. We need to have the language to articulate our thoughts and ideas to other professionals, and develop our listening skills to understand and integrate feedback from others. To achieve this, the education sector has a responsibility to ensure that we as students obtain these skills in our degrees, and then throughout our professional lives continues to advance them.

Ultimately it is a synergy where we work from idea to finishing line together and listen to each other and communicate effectively to advance our innovations and developments in society, for now and in the future. It is the process where no perspective is left behind, and in turn, no  behind.

To realise the immense gains from multisectoral collaboration, we need to:

1. Incentivise health care professionals to collaborate with experts in other fields outside of the clinic or the laboratory
2. Enhance communication skills across sectors to enable effective multisectoral collaboration
3. Involve diverse range of experts throughout the entire innovation and implementation processes

Now it’s up to us, who have been given the opportunity to learn and understand the fragile situation we are in. It’s up to us who hold positions of power, who can influence policies and laws to work together. It’s up to us to create momentum for sustainable health.

About the authors

Sherifah Nabikande is a student at Makerere University finalizing with her Masters of Public health. She has an interest in research for both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Alma Nordenstam is a medical student at Karolinska Institute, research assistant at CESH and policy enthusiast with a strong background in the youth civil society in Sweden. Besides her studies, she works on projects, both locally and globally, to foster better health outcomes for the 21st century.