Carleton’s Chantal Blouin was the only Canadian chosen to serve on a new international health commission, according to a Carleton press release.
Blouin, the associate director of Carleton’s Centre for Trade Policy and Law, will take an active role on the Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health, which is set to hold its first of four meetings in Norway Dec. 12, according to the release.
Fifteen people were chosen to be a part of the commission, Blouin said, adding they were each chosen for their unique disciplinary background.
“They wanted a mix of people,” she said.
She said her expertise is in political science, so she doesn’t have the conventional experience.
“I’m not a doctor, I can’t cure people, but what I can do is think up public policies, global and national, that can prevent people from being sick,” Blouin said.
Blouin, also the editor of the Healthy Diplomacy Monitor, said she deals with the “big picture” of health, such as human rights, which will help make her a valuable asset in Norway.
The commission will seek a variety of perspectives on health in order to avoid looking at it as strictly a biomedical problem, Blouin said. It will look at how changes in the food system or transportation will enable people to be healthier, she said.
Blouin said she’s passionate about global health because of all the deaths that could be prevented with improved access to health care.
“There are still millions of people who die of malaria, mostly children,” she said.
The commission will present its recommendations to the United Nations in 2013, Blouin said, adding she has high hopes the commission will cause real change considering past commissions’ success in altering the global health landscape.
The key is to get away from general recommendations, she said.
“The dream would be to come out with a report that has very specific recommendations of concrete . . . changes that could be adopted to improve global governance,” Blouin said.
Carleton president Roseann Runte said the university is “very proud” of Blouin’s appointment.
Blouin’s work will fit perfectly into the health sector of Carleton’s “strategic plan,” which outlines the goals and priorities of the university, Runte said via email.
André Plourde, dean of the faculty of public affairs, said the appointment reflects positively on “Carleton as a whole.”
As for Blouin, she said she’s excited to take on the new challenge and wants to keep a completely open mind going into the Dec. 12 meeting.
“I don’t know yet what the end result will be,” she said. “That’s very frightening and exciting.”
