Planning and development of the World Hepatitis Summit 2022
DURATION: 14 months
STARTING DATE: 1st September 2020.
COUNTRY: Global with focus on South-East Asia.
PARTNER: The World Hepatitis Alliance.
AIM
This grant will contribute to the development of the largest public health summit to drive action towards the elimination of viral hepatitis by 2030.
The summit will build the narrative for hepatitis elimination, will advance the knowledge on eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030 and will build all stakeholders capacity on hepatitis elimination.
The third World Hepatitis Summit (WHS) is to be held in Bangkok, Thailand in June 2022. It will be delivered as a hybrid event with both face-to-face and online components. The theme of WHS 2021 will be “Achieving the elimination of viral hepatitis within evolving health systems”.
CONTEXT
The World Hepatitis Summit is a large-scale, global event to advance the viral hepatitis agenda and the only global hepatitis conference focused on public health.
The first WHS was held in Glasgow, Scotland in 2015. The summit bought together over 500 delegates from 84 countries and it truly signified a turning point in the response to viral hepatitis. The summit helped to build momentum ahead of the 2016 World Health Assembly, where for the first time in history 194 countries adopted the Global Health Sector Strategy (GHSS) which called for the elimination of viral hepatitis as a public health threat by 2030.
The second WHS was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2017 and again this was an important moment in the hepatitis response, coming a year after countries committed to elimination. The summit was truly a launchpad for action with 4 innovative platforms being launched, addressing topics such as financing and policy. It also resulted in the development and release of São Paulo Government Declaration on Viral Hepatitis and the corresponding São Paulo Community Declaration on Viral Hepatitis. The true impact of the summit is best evidenced in the feedback of delegates who were inspired to drive change in their countries by implementing the lessons learnt and new partnerships they developed.
ACTION
2021 will see data across the cascade of care updated as countries report against the 2020 targets and is the final year of the Global Health Sector Strategy on Viral Hepatitis, 2016 –2021.
WHS 2021 will bring together a global audience of 1,000 delegates of civil society groups, WHO and its Member States, patient organisations, policymakers, public health leaders, medical professionals and funders to define how hepatitis elimination can be embedded in UHC programmes and across evolving health systems post COVID-19.
WHS will provide a platform for the communities disproportionally affected by viral hepatitis, such as people who inject drugs and indigenous peoples, to connect with decision makers and the wider global health community to drive action for hepatitis elimination.
EXPECTED RESULTS
The World Hepatitis Summit will support the global community to refocus on the hepatitis elimination efforts and clearly understand how these efforts can be positioned within the broader health agenda both nationally and globally.
The Summit aims:
To motivate governments, health systems and global agencies to increase resources for programmes for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis.
To empower governments to accelerate their efforts to reach the 2030 targets of eliminating viral hepatitis by building the knowledge and technical skills of delegates and exploring how disease specific responses can fit within wider UHC efforts.
To establish the importance of patient-centred care, which is decentralized, integrated and embraces task-shifting, in shaping evolving health systems and the role of the hepatitis community in its achievement.
To generate a cross-sectorial response to achieving elimination, highlighting integration opportunities and pathways, by increasing innovation, collaboration and joint-working.
To recognise the achievements made to date, identify gaps in global, regional and national responses and explore opportunities for closing those gaps across the continuum of care, and specifically in regard to access to diagnostics and drugs.
CATALYTIC IMPACT
WHS 2021 will give delegates the tools they need to better advocate at the national, regional and global level and will strengthen the collective voice of those demanding action. WHA is uniquely positioned to drive the meeting outcomes beyond WHS through their wider advocacy and capacity building programmes, further amplifying the impact of WHS2021.