The second conference of Tsinghua-Lancet Commission Report on Health and Poverty Alleviation in China was successfully held both online and offline on 29 September 2022. 25 committee members from home and abroad conveyed their experience with regard to the launch of related projects, putting forward recommendations for follow-up work. The opening ceremony of the conference was presided over by Dr. Margaret Chan, committee associate president, the Founding Dean of Tsinghua Vanke School of Public Health and the Emeritus Director-General of WHO. Professor Liang Wannian, Executive Vice Dean of Tsinghua Vanke School of Public Health, team leader of Report on Health and Poverty Alleviation in China, spoke at the conference and presented a progress report.

Dr. Margaret Chan emphasized in her opening remarks that despite relevant policies springing up from countries all over the world, poverty has persisted as a severe illness in human society. People-oriented actions have to be implemented to ameliorate the situation. “All aspects are involved when it comes to poverty alleviation”, she said, “among which health aimed poverty alleviation plays an essentially protective role as the cornerstone of all”. Dr. Margaret Chan pointed out that she looked forward to an active participation from all members to summarize salient points and come up with constructive ideas based upon the work report.

During the following report, Professor Liang Wannian introduced that Tsinghua Vanke School of Public Health had been carrying forward all the work firmly and methodically, since 8 April 2022 when the commission was founded. According to his speech, Vanke School has been focusing on building a strong team for academic researches and holding various symposiums, as well as on-extensive connection and deep cooperation with relevant departments. Professor Liang Wannian hoped that this conference could be oriented by problems existing in previous studies. “I hope everyone will express opinions freely. Those top-notch ideas that ensure the implementation of follow-up work can only be realized after pooling the wisdom of the masses through convergence and cooperation”, he said.

Professors of VSPH, LI Zhihui, TANG Kun, and ZHU Jiming Zhu spoke at the conference and introduced the progress of research work in terms of theoretical framework, data acquisition and policy support, respectively.

In the brainstorm session, participants contributed to an active discussion and reached a consensus on the next steps of follow-up work. Going forward, the executive team will strive to conduct more in-depth engagement and advances on the report work based on the suggestions of the committee members.

Edited by LIU Youjia, LI Tian, James Paul