Experts come together to foster collaborative solutions for global health
The Global Hygiene Symposium, being held in Singapore from 6th to 8th December 2023, will feature world-renowned experts on hygiene and global health as speakers across its plenary and breakout sessions. The symposium, organized by Chatham House and Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute (RGHI), will bring together policymakers, researchers, and programme practitioners from a range of fields to help shape the future of hygiene and global health.
Hygiene, water supply and sanitation specialist Clarissa Brocklehurst has been confirmed as the Facilitator for the symposium. Clarissa is an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, previously served as the Chief of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene at UNICEF, and helped establish the global Sanitation and Water for All partnership. She is also Managing Editor of the ‘State of the World’s Hand Hygiene’ report, published by the WHO and UNICEF.
Clarissa says, “We need to build a dialogue around hygiene that leads to collaboration across sectors — such as health, water, and industry — and establish a clear policy approach that governments around the world can adopt. I am honored to be the facilitator for the Global Hygiene Symposium and feel privileged — it is rare to have the opportunity to bring such a poorly understood and neglected issue out of the shadows. The symposium is an opportunity for the different hygiene domains to be brought together to share common challenges and to discuss ways to bridge the science and policy gap.”
Other plenary speakers announced this week include:
- Mr CHEW Ming Fai, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Public Health) and Director-General of Public Health at the Singapore National Environment Agency (NEA)
- Dr Adam Kamradt-Scott, Dr Jiang Yanyong Visiting Professor of Global Health Security at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
- Dr Ebere Okereke, CEO of the Africa Public Health Foundation
- Daniele Lantagne, Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University and ex. Public Health Engineer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
Leads for the Global Hygiene Symposium breakout sessions will include:
- WaterAid UK’s Senior WASH Manager for Hygiene and Global Lead on Hygiene Behaviour Change, Dr Om Prasad Gautam
- Public health practitioner and qualitative researcher Arundati Muralidharan, Co-Founder of MHAi, and Coordinator of the Global Menstrual Collective
- Interdisciplinary WASH specialist and Director of Strategy & Innovation at IRC, Angela Huston
- Mary Ashinyo, Quality Lead & Deputy Director, Institutional Care Division, in the Ghana Health Service
- Environmental health and behavioural scientist Kondwani Chidziwisano, Lecturer in the Department of Public and Environmental Health at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS).
For full details of the Global Hygiene Symposium program, including all the announced speakers, please visit globalhygienesymposium.org/program/.
