Ilona Kickbusch


"Public health is the science and art of promoting health. It does so based on the understanding that health is a process engaging social, mental, spiritual and physical well being. Public health acts on the knowledge that health is a fundamental resource to the individual, to the community and to society as a whole and must be supported by soundly investing in living conditions that create, maintain and protect health."  - Ilona Kickbusch. Good Planets are hard to find, Copenhagen, WHO EURO, Healthy Cities papers, Nr. 5: 1989. p. 13.

Public Health

Ilona Kickbusch is regularly asked to address numerous national and regional meetings of Public Health Associations throughout the world and to contribute to the journals of these associations.

Public health honours and awards

Ilona Kickbusch has been awarded a range of public health honours and awards:

She served as senior advisor to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health for the development of the Swiss law on Health promotion and prevention.

She is co-editor and author of the 2008 Swiss National Health Report  and senior advisor for the Swiss National Health Report 2015.
She also served on the Core Team for the Swiss Health Report 2020 which investigates the health of the younger generation www.bfs.admin.ch.

She coordinated the work on a new approach to addiction policy which was launched in June 2010: The Challenge of Addiction. Foundations for a Future Oriented Policy on Addiction in Switzerland. This report is available (also in German and French) on the website.

At the European level she advised on the EU health strategy and regularly contributes to the European Health Forum Gastein. At the global level she has advised the World Federation of Public Health Associations in the development of their strategy. A white paper on the future of public health written for the Rockefeller Foundation is available here.

Determinants of health
Ilona Kickbusch is presently engaged in a project together with the German Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Council on Foreign Relation to explore the interface between democracy and health. The results of a series of dialogues will be presented on occasion of the WHO World Health Assembly in May 2020.

Ilona Kickbusch together with Austin Liu has contributed to a special series of the Lancet on Political Science in Global Health.

The political determinants of health - ten years on. BMJ 2015; 35.h81

She is on the editorial Board of ”Gerechte Gesundheit”
www.gerechte-gesundheit.de