Blog Post

A new public purpose

Paul Nunesdea, PhD, CPF • November 18, 2020

Emerging cliché alert

Read this article in portuguese:

We are at the dawn of a new historical era for all humanity.

This pandemic brought suffering and loss of loved ones (and the death of many with no one even to bury them) on a scale that was previously unknown and with it the awareness of a new humanity.

Today the butterfly that flaps its wings in Beijing really causes a storm in the Caribbean. Humanity has become aware that living on planet Earth today is like living in a small village shared by 7 billion souls and who are almost known by names and surnames.

But this was precisely what the men and women who looked from space also told us long ago: the borders between countries are just imaginary lines.

What is the impact of this new conscience on the different political regimes that govern humanity is the big question. As part of the Facilitation Week (FacWeek.org) I participated last month in a global conversation launched by the x360 platform that has been leading the emergence of a new concept “a new public purpose“

In essence it sums up the following. The scale and effort required to emerge from the greatest crisis that humanity has ever experienced is herculean and governments must find new ways to involve and involve civil society working together for a common purpose.

Example? Measures to contain this pandemic will be all the more effective as they are led by civil society and Portugal was a case of success when, across the country, universities and companies anticipated a measure that was later announced by the Government: stay at home, study and work from home.

Through col.lab | collaboration laboratory the platform from which this Forum Hospital of the Future emanates and a set of other initiatives that we have taken to practice, we are contributing to the emergence of this new public purpose.

An example of this is the Health Regions Summit, which brings together the leaders of the health regions of mainland Portugal and islands, showing that the country in terms of health is one and that political autonomy brings advantages that can be used in terms of health and healthcare management.

Another example of this is the Health Data Forum, another Think Tank specialized in the emergence of a new use of health data for the creation of new generation of health systems, more intelligent in the effectiveness of responses to the health problems of the population, which are not the same from region to region, and the provision of healthcare, which should begin to be measured by the value generated by each clinical act and not by the sheer amount of clinical acts practiced. Health data can help to understand that in the provision of healthcare, ‘less’ can become sometimes ‘more’.


These national and international initiatives are possible thanks to the support that we have received from the various institutions under the supervision of the Ministry of Health of the XXII Government of Portugal, which honours us very much, with particular emphasis on INFARMED  which was the physical venue of the last day of the Health Data Global Hybrid Summit and the EU-India Mashup Day and where important advances in international cooperation have taken place in line with the priorities of the next Portuguese presidency of the European Council in strengthening the relationship between the European Union and India.


Portugal will be the country that will assume the presidency of the EU council from January 2021 and will surely leave its contribution for the best historical scrolls. Among them, to host this important dialogue between two global regions, the EU and India, which have everything to gain in deepening and strengthening their relations and in deepening this new awareness of being a 'global village' so that we can start acting as such.

About the author

Paul Nunesdea is the English pen name of Paulo Nunes de Abreu, Facilitator, Master of Ceremonies, Author, and Publisher of the book series - Architecting Collaboration, his LinkedIn profile can be reached here, or in Spanish here, or Portuguese here


Paul is an IAF Certified Facilitator™ who designs and hosts events for clients ranging from large companies to municipalities and regional governments.


His academic background as a PhD researcher combined with +15 years of experience as a former CEO and entrepreneur has sharpened a client-serving mentality eager to co-create win-win solutions. As an NGO founder, he co-founded Digital Health Portugal and hosts the Health Regions Summit, the Health Data Forum among other initiatives.


As both a GroupMap™ and Howspace™ certified facilitator he co-founded the Digital Collaboration Academy with renowned facilitator Peter Seah united by the vision of creating and sustaining a new emerging field - Digital Facilitation - augmented by the core competencies of the IAF - International Association of Facilitators.

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