Ilona Kickbusch (born 27 August 1948) is a German political scientist best known for her contribution to health promotion and global health. She is founding director, chair of the international advisory board and senior distinguished fellow of the Global Health Centre Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, where she also serves as adjunct professor.The Graduate Institute Website, Retrieved 22 February 2012:
She is Founding Member and Director of Digital Transformations for Health Lab (DTH-Lab), a global consortium of partners working to drive implementation of The Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030’s recommendations for value-based digital transformations for health co-created with young people.
Kickbusch is widely regarded as one of the founders of the field of global health diplomacy and a leading figure in health promotion, digital health governance, the political determinants of health and the digital determinants of health.
Now based in Switzerland, she ranked 13 in Switzerland among Best Scientists for 2026.
Early life and education Kickbusch grew up first in Munich and then in Chennai, India, where her father worked as a diplomat. In 1981, she graduated from the University of Konstanz, Germany, with a PhD in Political Science. During her post-graduate studies, she was supported by a fellowship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
Career Early in her career, Kickbusch contributed to the first academic studies in Germany on consumer–centered health care, the self-help and the women's health movement.
After joining the World Health Organization (1981–1998) she was appointed to lead the Global Health Promotion Programme, followed by senior positions at the regional and global level of the organisation. During her time at WHO, she had a distinguished career at both the regional and global level. She was responsible for the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986, a seminal document in public health, as well as for the subsequent global conferences in health promotion. She also initiated the first comparative WHO study of women's health in Europe, Women's Health Counts.
In 1998, Kickbusch joined Yale University to head the new Global Health Program at the Yale School of Public Health until 2004. On returning to Europe, she took up senior positions as chairperson of the World Demographic & Ageing Forum, St Gallen, (2005),World Demographic & Ageing Forum Website, Retrieved 22 February 2012: and chair of Global Health EuropeGlobal Health Europe Website, Retrieved 2012-2-22 (2009).
In 1999, Kickbusch was the candidate of the German government for the position of Regional Director, WHO Europe; the post went to Marc Danzon instead.
From 2008 to 2019, Kickbusch served as director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.Vinh-Kim Nguyen and Suerie Moon Take Over as Global Health Centre’s Co-Directors from Founder Ilona Kickbusch Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, press release of 29 August 2019.
Today, Kickbusch teaches regularly at several academic institutions including the University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland. She also advises organisations, government agencies and the private sector on policies and strategies to promote health at the national, European, and international level. She has published widely and is a member of several advisory boards in both the academic and health policy arenas. She has received many awards while contributing to innovations in health throughout her career.Implementing Health in All Policies: Adelaide 2010, Department of Health, Government of South Australia, Edited by Prof. Ilona Kickbusch and Dr. Kevin Buckett: 2010.
In 2017, Kickbusch co-chaired a health crisis simulation at the G20 Health Ministers meeting in Berlin, together with David L. Heymann from Chatham House. In 2018, she was appointed by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom to serve on the Independent High-level Commission on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), co-chaired by President Tabaré Vázquez of Uruguay; President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka; President Sauli Niinistö of Finland; Veronika Skvortsova, Minister of Healthcare of the Russian Federation; and Sania Nishtar, former Federal Minister of Pakistan.Ilona Kickbusch named to WHO Commission on Non-Communicable Diseases Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, press release of 22 February 2018. Also since 2018, she has been serving on the joint World Bank/WHO Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), co-chaired by Elhadj As Sy and Gro Harlem Brundtland.WHO and World Bank Group Join Forces to Strengthen Global Health Security World Bank, press release of 24 May 2018. In 2021, she was appointed to the WHO's Council on the Economics of Health For All, chaired by Mariana Mazzucato.Global experts of new WHO Council on the Economics of Health For All announced World Health Organization (WHO), press release of 6 May 2021. She also joined the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for One Health.TAG for One Health members World Health Organization.
Also in 2021, she co-chaired the Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030: Growing Up in a Digital World, which published its final report in The Lancet in 2021Kickbusch et al., The Lancet, 2021, DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01824-9. The Commission’s report established digital transformations as a determinant of health and called for new governance frameworks to protect children’s digital health rights.
Digital health and recent leadership In 2023, Kickbusch founded and became Director of Digital Transformations for Health Lab (DTH-Lab), a global consortium hosted at the University of Geneva’s Faculty of Medicine. DTH-Lab implements the recommendations of the Lancet and Financial Times Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030, focusing on digital transformations as a determinant of health, particularly for children and young people.DTH-Lab website www.dthlab.org retrieved 11 May 2026 Kickbusch has been a leading voice on the concept of “digital determinants of health”—the ways in which digital technologies and environments shape health outcomes and equity—publishing on the topic in The Lancet, the BMJ, and Health Promotion International.
Policy and research innovations Health Promotion – Health Society Kickbusch was involved in the formulation of the Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World in 2005 and served on the advisory group for the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health 2011. She was the founding editor of the journal Health Promotion International (Oxford University Press) and serves as the chair emerita of the editorial board.
She has always been active both in developing implementation strategies (for example, the drafting of the Swiss health promotion and disease prevention law), as well as in strengthening the theoretical basis of health promotion. Concerning the latter, she has contributed to the debate by developing the concept of the "health society" and exploring the links between health and modernity and innovative approaches to governance for health at the national and global level. She was recently lead author of white papers on "The challenge of addiction" and "The food system: a prism of present and future challenges for health promotion and sustainable development", and is engaged in a policy glossary on "Learning for well-being".
Health in All Policies – Governance for health – Policy innovations for health In 2007, she was appointed Adelaide Thinker in ResidenceAdelaide Thinkers in Residence Website, Retrieved 22 February 2012: for the subject area "Healthy societies" at the invitation of the Premier of South Australia Mike Rann. During this residency, she developed a special "health lens" approach to Health in All Policies, which has been implemented in South Australia. She has published and advised widely on HiAP approaches and is considered one of the global leaders in this field. She continues to be involved in a range of hands-on projects regarding Health in All Policies. She has conducted a study for the WHO Regional Office for Europe on "Governance for health in the 21st century", which is one of the key studies informing the new European policy for health, Health 2020. She is involved in the planning for the 2013 Global Conference on Health Promotion, which will focus on Health in All Policies, and in a range of advisory bodies for the study of the social determinants of health.
The settings approach – Demography and gender She developed the settings approach to health promotion and initiated programmes such as Healthy Cities, health-promoting schools, healthy workplaces, health-promoting hospitals, and health in prisons. Many of these networks are now global and have proved to be a highly sustainable approach to public health action. She also initiated the Health Behavior in School-aged Children study, which has become a global gold standard for measuring child and youth health. At the WHO headquarters, she initiated the Healthy Ageing programme and continues to be active in this field as chair of the multidisciplinary World Demographic & Ageing Forum, St Gallen.
Health Literacy Kickbusch has been a leader in developing the concept of health literacy and seeking to strengthen it through research and programmes. As a result of her initiative, the EU European Health Literacy Survey was created. It presented its results in 2011. She has been an advocate for citizen participation in health and has been instrumental in creating the new European Network On Patient Empowerment (ENOPE). The South Australian and Swiss health literacy alliances were created and based on her proposals.
Global Health Governance During her time at Yale University, she was head of the global health division, one of the first global health programmes and a school of public health. She contributed significantly to shaping the field of global health, particularly with the analysis of global health governance, and headed a major Fulbright Program entitled Health in a Borderless World. Today, she is considered one of the leaders in thinking on global health governance and has made significant suggestions with regard to multi-stakeholder involvement at WHO and partnership-based approaches to global health governance, including the proposal for a Committee C at the World Health Assembly. She provided significant input into EU policy on global health, as well as into the highly innovative Swiss health foreign policy. She also initiated Global Health Europe, a think tank to strengthen Europe's voice in global health.
Global Health Diplomacy Kickbusch has contributed significantly to the new field of global health diplomacy and has developed a unique approach to executive education in this field, which has gained significant support from the Rockefeller Foundation. Flagship courses are held regularly in Geneva, and have also been conducted in cooperation with local partners in China, Indonesia, Kenya, the USA and Canada. She has published widely on this subject—including a textbook on global health diplomacy—as well as on the wider issues of global health and foreign policy. She is a member of a number of policy networks in this field including the Global Health Diplomacy Network (GHD-NET). She is the editor (together with Tom Novotny) of the Global Health Diplomacy book series, published by World Scientific.
Other activities (selection) Governmental organizations Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG), Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Member of the Scientific Advisory Board (since 2020)Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG) Robert Koch Institute (RKI).