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The World Health Assembly (WHA) is an annual gathering of Ministers of Health, health leaders and delegations from all 194 United Nations Member States. In addition to official WHA plenary and committee meetings, there are also many events held on the sidelines of WHA.

World Health Assembly

Akili Dada is a leadership incubator anchored on the belief that African girls and young women CAN and DO and WILL LEAD. Our mission is to nurture transformative leadership in girls and young women from underserved and under-resourced backgrounds to meet the urgent need for more young African women in leadership.

In context to the Generation Equality Forum, Akili Dada is leveraging the Government of Kenya’s commitment at the ICPD 25 Summit as well as the governments’ subsequent commitment as a country lead on the Gender-Based Violence Action - Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition to call for the acceleration, implementation, and accountability by the government commitments to:

1. Enact favourable laws and policies that guarantee and protect the realization of girls’ and women’s rights.

2. Model and eliminate the discrimination of women and girls as exacerbated by harmful cultural practices and norms.

3. Champion multi-stakeholder support for strategies that will facilitate political and public buy-in for the elimination of gender-based violence.

Webinar 1:

• The status of gender Equality and GBV in Kenya

• The role of young women and girls in the acceleration, implementation, and accountability of the Generation Equality Forum Action Coalition commitments by the Kenyan government

• The function of intergenerational dialogues in realizing gender equality and eliminating GBV in Kenya

Webinar 2:

• The significance of Bodily Autonomy and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

• The role of young women and girls in facilitating access and delivery of comprehensive sexuality education in and out of school

• The actions required to influence gender norms change, increase knowledge of rights and empower girls and women to make autonomous decisions about their bodies, sexuality and reproduction

• How can young women collaborate with government to realize this commitment?

Akili Dada

Generation Equality: Intergenerational Dialogue Webinar Series 2021

Many SIDS have a large potential for developing and accessing several renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower. Some SIDS are therefore slowly emerging as frontrunners in the pursuit of renewable-based energy systems, building on the abundant local and natural resources. Furthermore, the declining cost of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies has opened the door for new opportunities to switch to clean energy, save money and create jobs.

Accelerating the transition can be supported by several different stakeholders. From securing enabling framework conditions, increased investments from the private sector, promotion of attractive project pipelines by developers and provision of targeted support from development partners.

One key challenge is to address existing investor risks that affect the financing costs and competitiveness of sustainable energy projects. Despite falling investment costs, SIDS face high financing costs that can dramatically affect the transition and competitiveness of sustainable energy versus deep rooted fossil fuel technologies. Financing costs often reflect several perceived or actual barriers and their associated investment risks.

This event aims to discuss how different stakeholders can mitigate perceived and actual investor risks when it comes to financing sustainable energy projects in SIDS, by presenting learnings from successful projects , showing how SIDS can take a project from idea to financial close and operation. And discussing what role different stakeholders can play in that process with an emphasis on concrete de-risking measures. Participants will include representatives from Small Island Developing States, the CIP Partners, and development banks.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Financing energy projects in Small Island Developing States

In the margin of the ministerial meeting on Energy Transition in preparations to the High-level Dialogue on Energy, Denmark, Chile, Colombia, the Netherlands and Germany will co-host a side event focused on the value chain of green hydrogen.

The United Nations Marrakech Partnership’s Climate Action Pathway on Green Hydrogen offers guidance on the scope and scale of stakeholder action required to deliver a 1.5 degree compatible energy sector by 2050. In the immediate, this action can aim to achieve the UN Breakthrough Outcome of at least 25 GW Green hydrogen capacity deployed by 2026, toward delivering 500-1000 GW required by 2030. Businesses, countries, and other stakeholders are encouraged to establish Energy Compacts that help to deliver these outcomes through sector-specific and market-enabling targets and measures to accelerate development of a green hydrogen ecosystem and value chain.

This high-level ministerial roundtable will convene stakeholders from different countries and sectors that will address critical gaps, challenges and opportunities in the policy and market environment. It will showcase the work that has been initiated to create a catalogue of Energy Compacts on green hydrogen to establish measurable and actionable bases for individual or collaborative action on key leverage points to accelerate development of end-to-end value chains.

High-level stakeholders will discuss the needed regulatory framework and infrastructure investments needed to support the continued expansion of green hydrogen capacity and capabilities. There will be a particular focus on the role of the private sector and their ambitions for submitting Energy Compacts on green hydrogen

Stakeholders will be able to submit questions prior to the side event that the participants of the discussion will be able to touch upon, when registering for the event.

United Nations

High Level Roundtable on Green Hydrogen

To provide sustainable energy for all, we urgently need to enhance the efficiency and affordability of high performing appliances. The Efficiency for Access Design Challenge invites teams of university students to create affordable and high-performing off-grid appliances and supportive technologies.

The Grand Final will showcase some of the amazing submissions we have received this year, as well as a prize giving ceremony awarding students with the most innovative designs. Featuring presentations from off-grid industry experts and a panel discussion; ‘how do we truly achieve inclusive energy access?’, it will give you the chance to hear insights into the future of the off-grid industry.

A link to the event will be provided on Monday 21 June 2021

If you have any accessibility requirements, please email us at EforAchallenge@est.org.uk

Agenda: 23 June 2021, 11am–1pm BST

11.00 – 11.05: Welcome: Efficiency for Access Design Challenge team

11.05 – 11.10: Introductory speech: Mike Thornton, Chief Executive, Energy Saving Trust

11.10 – 11.20: Keynote: Inga Jirgensone, Group Head of Business Development, Energy Saving Trust

11.20 – 12.00: Panel discussion and Q&amp;A session: 'How do we truly achieve inclusive energy access?'

Panellists:

Amita Bhakta, Interdisciplinary Researcher, Consultant in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
Margaret Matinga, Energia
Georgia Thompson, Design Delivery Manager at BAM Nuttall Ltd, and Founder, D-vers-ty

12.00 – 12.10: Break

12.10 – 12.20: The Efficiency for Access Design Challenge: A year in review

12.20 – 12.30: Showcase video : A sneak peek into the student’s projects

12.30 –12.55: Awards ceremony

12.55 – 13.00: Close: Efficiency for Access Design Challenge team

&nbsp;

Efficiency for Access Coalition

Efficiency for Access Design Challenge Grand Final 2021

The recently established Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health is delighted to announce a new fortnightly seminar series open to all. The Series accompanies the development of the Commission, inviting Commissioners and Co-Chairs to discuss a key topic, question, or challenge that the Commission hopes to tackle. The series aims to involve a range of stakeholders and voices in its work and promote discussion and debate on gender and health.

In the seventh event of the series, we will hear from Commissioner Fran Baum, Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Foundation Director of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

In this webinar Fran Baum will examine the ways in which understanding the influence of gender on health is assisted by the application of theory. She will discuss the application of Bourdieu’s theory of the ways in which economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital can create inequities. She will also examine the relevance of decolonisation theory in understand the impacts of colonisation on the health of Indigenous women. She will be joined in this part of the presentation by two colleagues, Faye Worner and Cleone Wellington, from the staff of Waminda (http://www.waminda.org.au/) an Australia Aboriginal Women’s Community Controlled Health and Welfare service. They will discuss the ways in which decolonisation underpins their work and approach to health and well-being.

Details of the event

Join us from 09:00 - 09:30 BST/08:00 - 08:30 UTC on Wednesday 23rd June to hear from Fran Baum and to pose your own reflections and questions on this topic to the Commission.

The event is open to all but pre-registration is encouraged.

The event will be live-streamed to youtube here https://youtu.be/RrM3qrO0VmM

About the Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health

In August 2020, a new Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health was launched. The Commission, with three co-chairs and 25 commissions, has been set up with the explicit and uncompromising aim to move beyond the evidence to catalyse action on gender and global health. The Commission is being co-chaired by UCL Centre for Gender and Global Health Director, Sarah Hawkes; Director of the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, Pascale Allotey; and Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation and former Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Elhadj As Sy.

University College London Centre for Gender and Global Health

Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health

Understanding gender and global health through a Bourdieuan lens

Climate change is a global phenomenon but Africa remains the most vulnerable. This is because there is growing body of evidence that attempts to demonstrate the nexus between climate change and peace and security trends in Africa. Within this discourse, there is a recognition that there is no causal relationship between climate change and violent conflict. However, climate change could contribute to and exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities between and within states and communities.  

The objective of this panel is to adopt a risk-based approach, and provide a snapshot on the emerging climate change related security risks and trends in Africa. It will also provide concrete examples of national, regional and continental responses with support of UNDP, to mitigate and adapt to such risks. The event will contribute to the wider discussion on the nexus between climate and security.  

The event will showcase UNDPs activities with regional, sub-regional and national actors that are being fast-tracked in Africa in order to effectively address climate related security risks.

UNDP Development Dialogues

Old wine in new bottle? Nexus between climate, security and fragility in Africa

<h3><a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6E2dXmpOSGYsFNQhQQmr1P3K6hi5aAZBUCJQ2mFKSGqJRVQ/viewform" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ASK LIVE QUESTIONS HERE</a></h3>
Please join the CSIS Economics Program for an analysis of the Biden administration’s 100-day supply chain review and the opportunities for cooperation between the United States and the Republic of Korea to develop more resilient supply chains for semiconductors and batteries. Audience members will have a chance to submit their questions at the end of the event.

Featuring:
Eun Kee, President, Ultium Cells
John Neuffer, President, Semiconductor Industry Association
Naomi Wilson, Vice President for Asia, Information Technology Industry Council

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)

100-Day Supply Chain Review: Opportunities for U.S.-Korea Cooperation

Join us for a dynamic discussion on “Reimagining Leadership: Courage, Collaboration &amp; Compassion,” featuring women leaders sharing diverse perspectives on leadership that drives transformative change, challenges gender norms and addresses power imbalances. The hour-long, interactive event sets the stage for further conversation at the Generation Equality Forum.

Moderated by: Geeta Rao Gupta, Senior Advisor 3D Program for Girls and Women, UN Foundation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

WomenLift Health

Global Health 50/50

Co-Impact

Women in Global Health

Reimagining Leadership: Courage, Collaboration & Compassion

Waste management infrastructure is failing to keep up with the global increase in plastic production and use. Sorting and recycling remain challenging globally, and in emerging markets collection services are extremely limited. Many emerging economies, particularly in South-East Asia, are also recipients of exported plastic waste, which does not help the plastic pollution crisis. The benefits of plastic are clear, but the imbalance between plastic production and waste management is having a devastating effect on marine life, as well as impacting coastal communities and marine tourism.

Beach cleanups and campaigns against single-use plastic have raised public awareness. A focus on waste management infrastructure, however, is required to remedy the plastic pollution crisis.

This Insight Hour will address the role of plastics producers and corporates in supporting waste collection and recycling systems in emerging markets. The speakers will highlight enhanced producer responsibility (EPR) initiatives in Africa and recycling projects in Asia. They will discuss the need for collaboration throughout the value chain to drive positive change and develop the plastics circularity roadmap.

Key topics for discussion:
<ul>
 	<li>Collaboration on finance/investment in waste management infrastructure and recycling technologies</li>
 	<li>Collaboration on waste collection and sorting (to include the role of technology, regulation and incentives)</li>
 	<li>Collaboration on consumer education</li>
</ul>
Speakers:
<ul>
 	<li>Akshay Shah
Vice chair
Kenya Extended Producer Responsibility Organization (KEPRO)</li>
 	<li>Han Zhang
Sustainability director packaging and speciality plastics, Asia-Pacifc
Dow</li>
 	<li>Afroz Shah
Environmental activist and lawyer</li>
 	<li>Melanie Noronha
Senior editor, thought leadership
The Economist Intelligence Unit</li>
</ul>

The Economist Group World Ocean Initiative

World Ocean Summit Insight Hour: Collaborating across the value chain to minimise marine plastic pollution in emerging markets

Among the many challenges to human well-being and security, biodiversity loss and wildlife trade don’t often make headlines. While COVID-19’s origin story shined fleeting attention on the link between wildlife trafficking and zoonotic disease, the focus quickly shifted to the staggering, ongoing human toll of the pandemic and its economic devastation. But as the last 18 months have shown, human health is inextricably linked with the planet’s entire web of life. New infectious zoonotic diseases that jump between animals and humans are emerging with growing frequency, and the conditions that create disease risk are often overlooked in traditional approaches to human health and national security.

Human behavior—including agriculture, rapid urbanization, and deforestation—has transformed the Earth’s land surface, altering ecosystems and causing unprecedented biodiversity loss. Only 3% of the world’s land remains ecologically intact. This brings humans, livestock, and wildlife into close proximity, exposing each to pathogens they have no immunity to. At the same time, with inadequate wildlife trade laws, poor enforcement, and the absence of a global agreement on wildlife crime, animals are pulled from the wild and sold as food, medicine, tourist souvenirs, pets, and other products in a lucrative international black market trade.

At this meeting, experts will share the ways that thousands of species and fragile ecosystems are falling victim to wildlife crime and trade. It will also examine how the creation of a global agreement could help end wildlife crime, prevent the escalating extinction of species—and possibly prevent the next pandemic.

SPEAKERS:

<a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/john-scanlon-ao" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John Scanlon AO</a>
Former Secretary-General of CITES

<a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/sharon-burke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sharon Burke</a>
Senior Advisor, International Security Program and Resource Security Program, New America

<a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/ofir-drori" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ofir Drori</a>
Director, LAGA/The Eagle Network

<a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/peter-daszak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peter Daszak</a>
President, EcoHealth Alliance

<a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/sharon-guynup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sharon Guynup</a>
Global Fellow, Former Public Policy Fellow;
Environmental journalist and author; Contributor, The New York Times, National Geographic, and other outlets

Wilson Center

Ending Wildlife Crime to Protect Animals, Human Health, and the Planet

At this event, WRI experts will present findings and recommendations from a new World Resources Institute report “Food Systems at Risk: Transformative Adaptation for Long-Term Food Security.” The report’s authors will show how climate change is increasingly threatening and straining the world’s food systems and outline adaptation measures needed to address these challenges.

Specifically, the event will highlight the important need for increased planning for and investment in long-term, transformative adaptation, especially where agriculture, fishing, and herding systems are most at risk. While incremental adaptation measures are essential, they will be increasingly insufficient to avert loss and damage in farming and herding communities.

Join an interactive discussion to find out the steps governments, funders and researchers can take now to ensure long-term food security for a global population that will reach 9.7 billion by 2050.

Speakers
<ul>
 	<li data-pm-slice="1 1 []">Cosmas Milton Obote Ochieng, Ph.D., Global Director, WRI Governance Center, and Former Director of the African Natural Resources Center at the African Development Bank</li>
 	<li>Rebecca Carter, Ph.D., Acting Director, WRI Climate Resilience Practice, Lead Author of the Report</li>
 	<li>Tyler Ferdinand, Research Associate, WRI Climate Resilience Practice, Co-Author of the Report</li>
 	<li>Richard Choularton, Director, Agriculture, and Economic Growth, Tetra Tech, Co-Author of the Report, Former Chief of the World Food Program’s Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Unit</li>
</ul>

World Resources Institute

Food Systems at Risk: Why Transformative Adaptation is Needed for Long-Term Food Security

The contribution of women to Sudan’s transition is crucial to ensuring long-term peace, stability and development. In March 2020, the Transitional Government adopted its National Action Plan on women, peace and security, in line with the UN’s Resolution 1325, which reaffirms the important role of women in peace and security efforts. Earlier this year, the Cabinet also announced its priority to empower women in public affairs. Yet implementation of these commitments remains slow.

The Constitutional Charter provides for at least 40 percent representation of women in the transitional institutions, but there is currently only one woman in the fourteen member Sovereign Council, while only four out of twenty-six ministers in the Cabinet are female. In addition, Sudan’s commitment to eliminate gendered discrimination and to protect the rights of women, in particular through the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), have been undermined by Cabinet-imposed reservations, including on equal rights in marriage, divorce and parenting. This sets a worrying precedent for the rights and protection of women in the country.

At this event, panellists will reflect on the role of women in the implementation of peace in Sudan, and discuss how to increase the participation of women in political roles and other fields. They will also examine outstanding priorities for legal reform, the impact of gender-based discrimination and the need for action to secure the rights and safety of women in the country.

Chatham House

Advancing the Role of Women in Sudan's Transition

Many of us, whether we identify as being in the “healing arts” or not, have wounds that we understand as the foundation of our own ability to heal and to have compassion for others.  In these sessions we will open to whatever it is we consider our own “wounded places” and allow our poem-making to be part of our healing process.

Redwing Keyssar, RN, Author &amp; Poet, of the UCSF MERI CENTER for Education in Palliative Care will guide us in using poem-making to explore the concept of what it means to be a “wounded healer”  and to find healing in our creative process together.

We will:
<ul>
 	<li>Use poem-making to explore ideas about health and healing</li>
 	<li>Create a supportive &amp; caring community</li>
</ul>

University of California San Francisco

Poetic Medicine for the "Wounded Healer"

This webinar will highlight the work taking place at national and local level across Scotland to reduce the cost of education and maximise the household income of families with school-age children.

Sara Spencer (CPAG) will introduce the Talking about Costs and Money at School resource and animation recently launched by CPAG in Scotland and the National Parent Forum for Scotland. The resource focuses on how schools can communicate with parents and carers effectively about costs, entitlements, and financial support and the positive impact this can have.

Gary Devine (GGC) will give an overview of the Financial Inclusion Support Officer (FISO) role. The FISO is working across schools in Glasgow to help ensure families are accessing all their financial entitlement. From November 2019 – November 2020, the FISO worked across four schools and assisted 165 clients, securing financial gains of £416,793.

Audrey Sutton/Cllr Foster (North Ayrshire Council) will highlight the activity of the Cost of the School Day Working Group which is taking a whole-systems, co-production approach to reducing the cost of education across North Ayrshire.

YouthLink Scotland

Reducing the cost of learning and maximising family income

Voices With Impact 2021: A week of films, conversation, and exploration related to mental health within Black and immigrant communities.

Motherhood has been called the most thankless and important job there is. A mother’s job is to teach, counsel, pay for, feed, clean, entertain, heal, love, and nourish their children. For mothers raising children in a foreign land these roles are made more difficult through language and cultural barriers, generational differences, and conflicting value systems. In this session, filmmakers Fan Sissoko, Ziyao Liu, and Thea Loo will explore the impacts immigrant mothers can have on their children’s mental health.

Note: This session has been designed to honor and center the full expression of mental health as experienced by first and second generation immigrants. Allies are welcome. Anything coming up in the session that decentralizes first and second generation immigrants will be compassionately redirected.

Featuring:
Fan Sissoko, “On the Surface”

Fan Sissoko is a French-Malian artist and designer based in Reykjavik. Living at the intersection of multiple cultures, she is interested in creating experiences that urge us to shed the layers of identity that separate us from others and to explore the hidden emotions that connect us instead. Storytelling is at the core of her practice. Her work has been commissioned by the Migration Museum, the Museum of London, the Science Gallery Dublin and the National Trust London. Her latest documentary, We The People (2019), has won the Film Futures Awards as part of Little Wing Film Festival 2020. In her work as a participatory designer, she partners with charities and the public sector to involve citizens in the design and delivery of health and care services

Ziyao Liu, “Could Have, Should Have”

Ziyao Liu is a Chinese writer/director/editor based in Los Angeles. She is an MFA candidate at UCLA directing program. She cares deeply about groups of people and subcultures that are not often seen on screen in both Chinese and American society. She creates films of a personal nature to generate empathy and understanding in people who are otherwise very different. She received her B.A. in film from University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she developed a midwestern work ethic.

Thea Loo, "Nanay"

Thea Loo is an emerging film producer and director who holds a BFA in Film Production from Simon Fraser University. She began her producing career through an administration internship at the Vancouver Film Studios and working as a production office assistant on the Amazon Studios TV series “Man in the High Castle”. Thea’s most recently produced short film “No More Parties” (Dir. Natalie Murao) premiered at the San Diego Asian Film Festival and was created with the funding support of the National Film Board of Canada. She is creatively producing a short narrative still in development entitled “Soule”, about Filipino Canadian sneakerheads. Her directed works focus on investigating the Asian Canadian experience particularly through the lens of spirituality and the perspectives of the Filipino diaspora. Through the support of Voices With Impact, her short documentary “Nanay” will focus on patterns of trauma affecting immigrant Filipino families and shed light on their mental health journeys

For more information about Voices With Impact 2021, please visit <a href="https://artwithimpact.org/voices-with-impact/2020-21/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Art With Impact</a>.

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