Summer interview 2013 – Ilona Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Programmme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies

August 2013

What are you working on this summer?

We are conducting our annual Executive Course on Global Health Diplomacy in the first week of July with participants from all around the world. Then there are a few publications and studies to complete – for example on the EU as a global health actor - and a bibliography on Global Health Diplomacy. Finally we will be teaching in Beijing China on occasion of the big celebrations of China Africa Cooperation.

Holiday plans?

Yes – in North China visiting monasteries and old cities, in my Chalet in the Bernese Oberland and pottering around in Geneva. But we have a move to conduct with our programme to the new facilities at the Maison de la Paix – so there will also be packing of boxes!

What do you take the opportunity to do in Geneva during the summer?

I can never quite decide what I like more – the old town or the lakeside. The best is always to sit outside in the early evening with a glass of Swiss wine in one of the many buvettes and watch the sun go down.....

Do you have a place you really love, in Geneva or in the surrounding area?

I love Coppet – I used to live there and always take my friends and visitors to Madame de Staels chateau....what atmosphere...............and then walk down to the lake and take the boat back to Geneva

How about a summer book recommendation for our readers?

If it rains: a book that fits Geneva is "Governing the World" by Mark Mazower. It is about the history of the global idea and how it developed. If the sun shines: a.m.homes: This book will save your life.

And a music?

Jospeh Calleja – any CD of his – he is a tenor I discovered in Malta – what a voice – melt away with heat and Puccini.