WISH is working with leading local and international organizations to present a series of sessions that shine a spotlight on a range of health-related issues during its forthcoming virtual conference, WISH 2020, taking place from November 15-19.
These 45-minute ‘In Focus’ session are delivered in collaboration with such organizations as Qatar Charity, Save the Children, the Carter Center, and Doha Forum. The sessions draw on each collaborator’s wide network of experts to bring fresh insights to discussions taking place as part of the upcoming gathering of global health leaders.
‘The Pathway to Localization: The Importance of Building Health Capacity in Developing Countries’, presented in partnership with Qatar Charity will focus on the long-term benefit of properly engaging local stakeholders in the delivery of health initiatives in developing countries. On the same day, The Carter Center will host a session featuring Dr. Donald Hopkins – the only man to lead successful efforts to eradicate an infectious disease. His insights in to the eradication of smallpox 40 years ago are particularly pertinent now, as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other sessions in this series will focus on different aspects of the pandemic, including a session on fake news and COVID-19; one on the challenges of developing vaccines and administering them effectively; and one, led by Nursing Now – a global initiative created to raise the profile of nurses and midwives that coincides with this year being designated as The Year of the Nurse. Their session ‘Mental Health of Frontline Workers: Tools, Approaches, and Policies to Help Yourself and Others’, will highlight the extraordinary stress nurses and other frontline healthcare workers are facing as they continue to deal with patients affected by the pandemic.
The session led by Doha Forum, titled ‘Geopolitics and the Global Response to COVID-19’, will present findings from the upcoming Doha Forum report on initial emergency international responses to the pandemic and will consider the possible political implications of the pandemic over the coming years.
Away from COVID-19, a session titled ‘The Children of the Frontline’ , which is led by the charity Save the Children, will look at the challenge of delivering healthcare to the one in five children around the world living in areas affected by conflict, and the United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries will present ‘Technology Transfer: Future-proofing Health for All’, The UN Tech Bank is one of the youngest entities in the UN system, with a mandate to support science, tech, and innovation in the least developed countries.
Finally, ‘Essence of Equality: The African Network of Medical Excellence’ will be presented in collaboration with the Italian NGO, EMERGENCY, whose remit is to provide free medical treatment to the victims of war and to poor, under-served communities. Their session will explore efforts to create African-led centers of excellence across Africa.
These ‘In Focus’ sessions, will take place virtually in the Ibn Sina Theatre. The first of two daily sessions will run from 4:15pm to 5:00pm (Doha time (GMT+3)) and the second from 8:15pm – 9:00pm (Doha time (GMT+3)).
Under the banner ‘One World Our Health’, WISH, Qatar Foundation’s global health initiative, will be releasing more than 15 research reports with policy-driven recommendations around several themes of the summit. These focus on such issues as mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder, and climate change and health.
