Held from 10 to 12 July in Bali, Indonesia, The HEAD Foundation Conference 2023 provided a platform to dialogue on the two pillars of the Foundation — education and healthcare. The conference also showcased the existing works of the Foundation and explored future directions in moving forward toward impacting lives in Asia through quality education and effective healthcare.
The three-day event was attended by 61 participants, including the Foundation’s Advisory Board, Board of Directors, and Fellows. Attendees came from the education and healthcare sectors, with diverse backgrounds ranging from government officers and policymakers, academics and practitioners, leaders of education institutions, leaders of healthcare institutions and representatives from IGOs and NGOs.
Opening the conference at the welcome dinner were Emeritus President Dr Cham Tao Soon, Chairman of the Advisory Board at The HEAD Foundation, and Mr Ho Swee Huat, Chairman of the Board of Directors at The HEAD Foundation, who shared the visions and aspirations of the Foundation. Also representing the Foundation were Dr Wan Chang Da, Chief Executive Officer, Mr C.D. Liang, Director, Development, and Mr Vignesh Naidu, Director, Operations, who elaborated on the current programmes, projects and thought leadership endeavours that The HEAD Foundation has been working on.
The second day featured keynote speeches and plenary talks focusing on trends in education and healthcare. The education keynote presentation “Learning Crisis: The Way In, The Way Out” was delivered by development economist Prof Lant Pritchett who joined in virtually from the US. He gave a broad overview of how successful education systems are constructed such that quality education for every child is a natural consequence of the well-functioning system. This was followed by a plenary talk on education featuring Dr Iwan Syahril, Director General of Early Childhood, Basic Education and Secondary Education at the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology, Mr Jian Xu (Jeffrey), Senior Education Specialist, ADB Human and Social Development Sector Office, Sectors Group, and Ms Najelaa Shihab, Founder of Sekolah Cikal. The session delved into talent and leadership, stakeholders and students, and the role of technology.
The afternoon session of the day that focused on healthcare was kick-started with a keynote address on “The State of Healthcare in South-East Asia: Challenges and Opportunities” by Professor Tikki Pang, Visiting Professor at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He highlighted the need to adopt a holistic, integrated, and equitable approach to health to address the challenges facing health systems in the region. The next session was a plenary talk which featured Dr Brent Bauer, Director of Research for the Integrative Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic, USA, Prof Jemilah Mahmood, Professor and Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University in Malaysia, and Dr Pauline Tay, Director at National Health Innovation Centre in Singapore. They shared their insights on planetary health, integration of East-West approaches and the role of technology.
The final day of the conference opened with a panel session which welcomed principals and community leaders from the Balinese public school system, sharing their thoughts on the impact of Kurikulum Merdeka, one of Indonesia’s biggest and most complex education reforms. The last activity for the conference was the World Café which, through facilitated group discussion, invited all attendees to actively share their diverse perspectives and collective discoveries on emerging trends in education or healthcare and ways to address it.
The conference is a special opportunity for the Foundation to not only strengthen existing partnerships and networks in the education and healthcare spaces, but to also gather expert opinions that can inform its next steps towards its vision to improve lives in the region.