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The 2019 Global Health Exchange Conference gets underway in DCU
The 2019 Global Health Exchange Conference gets underway in DCU

The 2019 Global Health Exchange Conference gets underway in DCU

Global health experts will be discussing the latest practices focusing on the health of the world's poorest people at their annual conference tomorrow.

The 2019 Global Health Exchange Conference – co-hosted by the Irish Global Health Network (IGHN) with the HSE, Dublin City University and Oxfam Ireland – will take place at DCU’s School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health building on their Glasnevin campus tomorrow.

The flagship IGHN event is the largest annual conference in Ireland focussed on global health.

The conference brings together health professionals, academics and humanitarian and development workers, whose work is centred on reaching the furthest behind first. Such work is the cornerstone of Ireland’s new international development policy – ‘A Better World’.

The theme for this year’s conference is ‘Reaching the furthest behind first: addressing gender and other inequalities to meet the SDGs’.

More than 75 participants are confirmed to speak about their work with the aim of exchanging latest practices, learning and experiences focussed on the poorest worldwide.

“We have a very strong programme comprised of thought leaders working in the area of global health on projects both in Ireland and abroad,” said Nadine Ferris France, Executive Director of the Irish Global Health Network

“Participants were selected based on the high impact of their work in addressing inequalities. This includes those working with women and girls, people living with disabilities and all those who are most marginalised. 

“We look forward to sharing latest research, experiences and learnings on the most pressing issues at the cutting edge of the sector,” she added.

Keynote speakers for the event include Ifrah Ahmed, an Irish-based Somali activist working to ban the practice of Female Genital Mutilation in her native country, where 98 percent of girls are still affected. Irish academic Ailbhe Smyth, activist and former co-Director of the Together for Yes campaign to repeal the Eighth Amendment, will also be addressing the conference.

“Ireland has been developing new initiatives on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and leading on women’s issues to effect international change.  The Irish Global Health Network’s role is to galvanise those efforts and accurately reflect the intensified work taking place. We also want to give due credit and pay tribute to those working at the forefront of those movements,” commented Anne Matthews, IGHN Chairperson and Professor, School of Nursing & Human Sciences at DCU, which is co-hosting the conference along with the HSE and Oxfam Ireland.

The conference also aims to highlight global health leadership, with speakers including the Afghan Public Health Chief, Dr Mohammad Haqmal, who developed ground breaking health initiatives in Aghanistan; and Sherly Meilianti from WHO’s new Global Health Workforce Network (GWHN) Youth Hub, who will share the importance of engaging students and young professionals in global health policy.

Also participating are Annette Kennedy, Vice-President of the International Council of Nurses, Diarmuid O’Donovan, Professor of Global Health at Queen’s University Belfast as well as a host of leading international participants who will join Irish-based health professionals to improve ways of collaborative working and focus on lessons drawn from policy, programme implementation, evaluation, research and practice.

For more information about the conference, click this link here: https://bit.ly/2lK0MWu