News

Indo-Pacific roundtable to explore human flourishing

Diplomats, scholars, church and business leaders from Australia and Indonesia will meet at Australian Catholic University’s Rome Campus to discuss future endeavours to strengthen human flourishing in the Indo-Pacific region.

The roundtable meeting will consider opportunities for cross-disciplinary research into human well-being, including interfaith relations, public health, community development, economic growth, and sustaining peace.

The meeting will bring together senior officials and leaders from government, business, the Catholic Church, and higher education institutions in Australia, Indonesia and the United States who are spearheading human flourishing programs nationally and globally. Diplomats and representatives of relevant industry groups, including the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, will contribute to the roundtable.

The Australia-Indonesia Human Flourishing Roundtable in Rome will honour the intentions of the late Pope Francis’ apostolic journey to Indonesia, where he urged for an increase in interreligious dialogue and applauded efforts to improve social cohesion in the diverse nation.

Indonesia is the world’s third largest democracy and has the largest Muslim population in the world. The Southeast Asian nation is also a key partner for Australia in the Indo-Pacific, as signalled by the Australian Prime Minister’s recent visit earlier this month.

ACU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Abid Khan said Australia and Indonesia’s bilateral partnership, as affirmed by the Lombok Treaty, extended to shared ecological, economic and social challenges to human flourishing.

Professor Khan said the roundtable meeting was part of ACU’s commitment to partnering with Indonesian university, business, government, religious and civil society organisations to build capacity in human flourishing across the Indo-Pacific.

“Our hope is to develop a consortium of Australian and Indonesian universities to build knowledge and practices of our Indigenous communities and religions, and offer these unique perspectives from the global south to international conversations around flourishing and human development,” Professor Khan said.

“These are global challenges, and we look forward to the dialogue with partners from Indonesia to develop a strategic partnership for strengthening human flourishing in this region.”