Breaking siloes of decision making for effective and systematic air quality solutions

Air pollution is one the great challenges facing urban environments today, with 99% of the global population living in areas where air pollution concentrations are deemed “unsafe” according to the WHO air quality guidelines. Air pollution is also a typically wicked problem. We know there are inequities in exposure to air pollution and the resources available to address it; a heterogeneous nature to the sources and dispersion of pollution; and an array of solutions available to stakeholders. There are synergies between air quality solutions and actions for climate, health, equity and social wellbeing, yet siloed thinking in decision-making is limiting the outcomes of air pollution action. Systems approaches offer opportunities to overcome siloed thinking.

In collaboration with the World Economic Forum, we used structured decision-making as a novel engagement tool to gain systems insights into the synergies, barriers and opportunities facing stakeholders. We invited a diverse array of stakeholders from across urban systems to collaborate in a problem solving workshop, in which we adapted the structured decision making process for systems insights into urban air quality actions. The aim of the workshop was to understand the synergies and conflicts between stakeholders, and to identify the actions that stakeholders believe are feasible and provide co-benefits for climate, health and social wellbeing.

With 24 participants from 15 countries, we gathered the insights from NGOs, Academia, Industry and Policy from sectors such as transport, health, environment and technology. The group agreed on common goals that drive their work: “human health and well-being”, "equity" and "planetary health and climate". In response to these, they identified  over 100 solutions and highlighted the importance of transport and data related solutions, including air quality monitoring , modelling and transparency. The perceived feasibility of transport solutions was varied, however despite this “public transport” and “climate and health promoting transport” were recommended as some of the  top co-created actions by stakeholders. Key barriers to action included lack of data (access, quality and awareness), challenges of siloed thinking and collaboration and misinformation and disinformation.  There was a call from stakeholders for enhanced cross collaboration and systems approaches, but a lack of suggestions of how to practically implement this.    

The process of identifying and agreeing on common goals and co-creating corresponding solutions can help break siloes of decision making and help promote optimal systems-based solutions. There is a clear need for further understanding into how we integrate systems thinking into real world decision making, especially in low and middle income regions where the application of systems thinking is currently understudied.