Seeing the bigger picture: Lessons from the WHO Summer School on Systems Thinking for NCD Prevention

This summer, I was one of 30 participants selected from over 1,800 applicants to attend the World Health Organization (WHO) Summer School on Systems Thinking and Innovation for the Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases and a Healthy Ageing Population. Co-organised by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, Université Côte d’Azur, Ulysseus European University, and York University, the summer school brought together a multidisciplinary group of researchers, practitioners, policy experts, and academics.

The week of activities was an invitation to look deeper and think holistically about two public health challenges: noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and ageing populations. As a DPhil student researching how young adults engage with food content in digital media and its influence on their dietary behaviours, with the goal of co-creating interventions and policy to promote healthier diets within this population, I attended the summer school, eager to understand how systems thinking could improve my research and help me make sense of the complexity we often encounter in public health.

What is systems thinking?

Systems thinking is an approach that considers the broad perspectives of how complex problems are interconnected and interdependent. It asks us to consider the people, populations, organisations – including the private sector, third sector and public sector - interacting and responding to each other, how their contexts shape them and the challenges that we face. An understanding of complex systems enables us to identify patterns, consider the most effective ways to intervene and facilitate change, identify the leverage points that can have a significant positive system-wide impact, and assess the unintended consequences that an intervention may bring.

If we consider NCD prevention through the lens of systems thinking, we recognise that any prevention policy is part of a complex system with inherent challenges and opportunities. The distribution of responsibilities for NCD prevention policies, both direct and indirect, must be shared across individuals, populations, and organisations. A strong policy therefore requires collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and consensus-building with actors who may traditionally be seen as outside the scope of health policy. The circumstances will differ for each country, but understanding the unique systems within which a national or local NCD policy must operate will enable the creation of a more coherent, effective policy that can be implemented.

From foundations to futures

The programme progressed from core concepts to practical tools, allowing ample space for reflection. Some session highlights included:
• Engaging with complexity in public health – a compelling introduction to why linear solutions often fall short
• Becoming a systems thinker – a hands-on session that helped shift how we see problems and possibilities
• Systems mapping in practice – a look at systems thinking methods and methodologies, including stakeholder network analysis, causal loop diagrams, and leverage point identification
• Foresight thinking – building a “Futures Wheel” to explore how today's decisions shape tomorrow's systems.

Throughout the week, I noted that the biggest shift for me was philosophical. Systems thinking isn’t just about tools; it’s a mindset. It’s about staying curious, zooming out, and being willing to ask: ‘What system am I working within?’

It invites us to embrace complexity rather than simplify it away, and that’s a powerful idea, especially for those of us working in emerging fields, where digital systems, behaviours, and policy are deeply entangled. This experience re-energised my research, and I am now exploring ways to incorporate systems thinking and systems-informed questions into my DPhil project and my research career.

Global voices, shared challenges

I enjoyed meaningful conversations with fellow participants from Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Malta, Belgium, Cyprus, Canada and beyond, exploring how public health is implemented in different parts of the world. I left with new tools, new friends, future collaborators, and a deepened appreciation for how local insights contribute to global solutions.

Sometimes, the best thing we can do as researchers is to pause, zoom out, and ask where our work fits into the broader system. This summer school gave me the space to do exactly that. I returned to Oxford with a renewed sense of purpose, reminded that even when the challenges in public health seem enormous, there are ways to create meaningful, system-level change.