Public and global engagement with global health.

2066 www.thelancet.com Vol 381 June 15, 2013 Global health is widely regarded as being grounded in public and global engagement. But much of the process of global health is dominated by Northern institutions, expert groups, think-tanks, high-level meetings, and the like. Indeed, the exponential growth of global health in the past decade may soon turn into terminal decline unless truly global and broad-based ownership of the concept can be achieved. In April, 2013, a public consultation called Global Health Beyond 2015 was organised by the Swedish Society of Medicine. More than 1000 participants came together in Stockholm’s Waterfront Centre for a packed day’s programme; as many people also participated remotely via social media. The next day, a smaller group of around 200 students and young professionals continued to deliberate with opinion leaders. They are the fi rst generation that has grown up in a truly global environment. They are passionate about safeguarding the planet, and not least the health of its growing population, for their future and their children’s future. Under an overall umbrella of poverty and inequality, the meeting concentrated on three issues that are driving the changing global context of health: the underlying determinants of health, non-communicable diseases, and climate change. Scandinavians and their governments have a long tradition of engaging with world aff airs, and that underlies the public engagement evident as one dimension of this process. But Scandinavia is also part of the globe, and hence its health community takes its role in global health seriously. One of the aims of this process was to produce a Stockholm Declaration for Global Health out of all the interactions (panel). We hope that this Declaration will serve as an unoffi cial but infl uential framework within which Scandinavia, and other countries, can engage fruitfully with global health. The Declaration provides an important opportunity to promote equitable global health and development by leading bilateral and multilateral initiatives, including at the UN, and strengthening research capacity globally among the coming generations. The Swedish Society of Medicine commits to follow the Declaration by adopting an ongoing agenda to promote global healthy living through fairness and equity, on an intergenerational and multidisciplinary basis. In the global perspective, we look forward to other responses to this Declaration from around the world that will contribute to widening the ownership of global health conceptually and geographically.