There’s such a thing as “too much information”, especially for
Thank you for joining us to explore critical global health challenges and collective solutions.
Please note that this event is exclusively for in-person attendees and will not be livestreamed.
The 2026 Health and Humanity Summit brings together global thought leaders, practitioners, and advocates to examine a growing fracture at the heart of humanitarian action: the erosion of shared political and moral consensus around who deserves protection, who bears responsibility, and how solidarity is enacted in times of crisis.
Set against a backdrop of armed conflict, geopolitical polarization, climate emergencies, shrinking civic space, and declining trust in multilateral institutions, the Summit explores how humanitarian principles are increasingly contested, selectively applied, or subordinated to political interests. As aid funding declines and inequalities widen, healthcare and humanitarian systems face unprecedented strain. The event highlights the urgent need for renewed, collective approaches to protecting health and humanity in an increasingly fragmented world.
There such a thing as too much infornation especially for you
There such a thing as too much infornation especially for you
There such a thing as too much infornation especially for you
Civil Society: Organizations and individuals whose work addresses social issues and promote public welfare, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations, grassroots movements, advocacy groups, and activists.
Academia: Professors, researchers and students in the field of international relations, human rights, area studies, public health, public policy, communications, conflict and other related fields.
Thought Leaders: Subject matter experts and industry influencers in the fields of humanitarian aid, public health, technology and social justice whose work adds value to discourse, shapes debates, drives conversations, and provides insights.
Media: Freelance and staff journalists, including photojournalists, reporters, editors, publishers etc, who report and write about health and humanitarian issues.
Grab your seat while they last we have a limited number available
There’s such a thing as “too much information”, especially for
There’s such a thing as “too much information”, especially for
There’s such a thing as “too much information”, especially for
There such a thing as too much infornation especially for you
There such a thing as too much infornation especially for you
There such a thing as too much infornation especially for you
Civil Society: Organizations and individuals whose work addresses social issues and promote public welfare, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations, grassroots movements, advocacy groups and activists.
Academia: Professors, researchers and students in the field of international relations, human rights, area studies, public health, public policy, communications, conflict and other related fields.
Thought Leaders: Subject matter experts and industry influencers in the fields of humanitarian aid, public health, technology and social justice whose work adds value to discourse, shapes debates, drives conversations, and provides insights.
Media: Freelance and staff journalists – including photojournalists, reporters, editors, publishers, etc – who report and write about health and humanitarian issues
Personal Under Secretary to the Prime Minister of Nepal
Expertise in: Public Policy Implementation and Government Coordination
Prakriti Dhakal serves as Personal Under Secretary to the Prime Minister of Nepal, working within the Policy and Strategy Unit at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Kathmandu. In this role, she coordinates policy delivery and inter-ministry engagement across key social and economic sectors, helping translate government priorities into implementation on the ground.
Prakriti holds an MSc in Global Health Policy from the London School of Economics and a Master's in Non-Profit Management from Westcliff University. Her work bridges health systems expertise with hands-on government delivery, spanning health financing reform, regional cooperation, and policy research. She contributed as a member of the Climate Policy, Governance and Finances Working Group for MSF South Asia's Climate and Health Issue Brief, helping shape its regional evidence base and policy recommendations.
Before joining government, she co-founded INLab and the CEE SRHR Innovation Hub in partnership with a Sri Lankan team and served as Executive Director of United For Impact, delivering public health community interventions in Sri Lanka alongside her regional civil society work. Her contributions have been recognized with the Map the System Excellence Award from Oxford and an Outstanding Leadership award from the U.S. Department of State.
Based in Nepal, she brings a Global South, government-side perspective, along with a longstanding personal connection to Sri Lanka, to conversations on health sovereignty, financing, and equitable access.
National co-convenor, People’s Health Movement – India Senior scientist, SATHI, India
Expertise in: Patient Rights
Dr Abhay Shukla is a public health physician, working on community and public health issues in Maharashtra since last three decades. He is Senior scientist at SATHI (Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives), while having membership of the Core group on Health of National Human Rights Commission. He is national co-convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, and is a Global steering committee member of the People’s Health Movement.
Abhay has been centrally involved in developing the framework of rights-based community monitoring and planning of health services in India. He has mentored this process for public health system accountability across Maharashtra since 2007 which now covers over a thousand villages, helping people to reclaim and majorly improve health service delivery. He has also mentored the development of Community Action for Nutrition (CAN) processes since 2017, which have led to significant positive impacts and substantially reduced malnutrition in over 400 villages in tribal areas across Maharashtra.
Abhay led the drafting of the national ‘Patients’ Rights Charter’, adopted by NHRC and the Union Health Ministry. He has authored / co-authored various publications on the health system in India, including the popular book ‘Dissenting Diagnosis’ (published by Penguin) which exposes malpractices in the private medical sector in India. He is one of the founders of the national network, Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare. Currently he is researching corporatisation and financialisation of healthcare in India, while campaigning for right to health, public health system accountability, and social regulation of private healthcare sector.
Abhay has recently co-authored two papers for UNU-IIGH – one on Corporatisation of private healthcare in India promoted by globalised investments, and another on Effects of corporatisation on clinical practice in Private healthcare institutions.
He led a team which facilitated large scale audit of private hospital bills of COVID patients, leading to unprecedented refund of overcharged amounts by private hospitals to patients. He represents the Indian region in the People’s Health Movement global steering committee. He is actively involved in campaigns for right to healthcare, accountability of public health services, resistance to healthcare privatisation, social regulation of private healthcare, rights of frontline health workers, and advocating for a system of Universal Health Care.
Professor, School of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Global Studies & Governance (GSG) Program
Expertise in: Global Studies & Governance
As the Founder of Global Studies & Governance Department at Independent University, Bangladesh (2016- ), and a Professor since 1989 (Philadelphia University/Universidad Iberoamericana, 1990-2014), Imtiaz Hussain created/taught wide-ranging International Relations/Global Studies/Governance courses. He also authored several books: Multifaceted Development; Branding Bangladesh; Coronavirus Pandemic & Online Education; Rohingya Camp Narratives: Tales From the ‘Lesser Roads’; Local-Global tradeoffs; Order-disorder Consequences: “State” no more an Island?; South Asia in Global Power Rivalry; Transatlantic Transactions; North American Regionalism; Evaluating NAFTA; Border Governance and the ‘Unruly’ South; and Afghanistan-Iraq and Post-conflict Governance. His scholarly articles have also appeared in Journal of International Relation; Encyclopedia of U.S.-Latin American Relations; Handbook of Global Security and Intelligence; South Asian Survey; Politics & Policy; Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh; & Norteamérica; and media outlets in Dhaka’s Daily Star, Dhaka Tribune and Financial Express newspapers. A recipient of several research fellowships, invitations for specialized conferences, and teaching awards (University of Pennsylvania; Universidad de las Americas, Mexico City; and Independent University, Bangladesh), Professor Hussain’s professional journey began upon graduating from University of Pennsylvania in 1989 (Pol Sci).
WHO Representative to Sri Lanka
Expertise in: Global Public Health
Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav assumed responsibilities as WHO Representative to Sri Lanka in December 2025. An Indian national, Dr Pandav is a senior global public health leader with over three decades of experience in epidemiology, health policy, health systems strengthening, program management, emergency preparedness and response.
Dr Pandav previously served as the WHO Representative to Nepal from September 2020 to November 2025, and to Timor-Leste from April 2015 to September 2020. His association with WHO started in 2004 with Mental Health and Substance Abuse Unit in the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia Region. Since then, he has served WHO in various capacities that include: Medical Officer (Public Health), WHO Country Office for Maldives (2009-2011); and Health Policy Advisor, WHO Country Office for Timor-Leste (2011-March 2015).
Dr Pandav’s leadership has been recognized through several prestigious awards, including the WHO Director-General’s Excellence Award (2017), WHO DG’s Award for Excellence for championing the Walk the Talk initiative (2018–2019), and the Special Initiative for Mental Health Award (2022). He was conferred the Order of Timor-Leste by President José Ramos-Horta in May 2023 and received the Alumni Award for Practice from the University of Pittsburgh in November 2023.
He has authored several scientific publications. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Pandav served as Senior Research Associate, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, USA. He received his MBBS degree from Grant Medical College, Mumbai, India; and a Master's in Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh, USA.
Adjunct Faculty, JIPMER International School of Public Health
Expertise in: Health Rights
Dr T Sundararaman was a professor of medicine in JIPMER, Puducherry (from 1984 to 2002), before he shifted to working full time with health systems strengthening and health policy – initially, for 5 years as the director of the State Health Resource Centre, Chhattisgarh, and then as the executive director of the National Health Systems Resource Centre for 7 years. He then taught public health and health systems in CSMCH in JNU for a year and served as professor and dean of the School of Health Systems Studies at TISS Mumbai for 4 years. He has a number of publications, both books and journal articles in the field of health systems and health policy.
Other than his professional career, Dr Sundar is well known as a champion for health rights, and has helped in organising and guiding and peoples health movements, which is a global network of civil society organisations that works for health rights and health equity. He has also served as its global coordinator and as a member of its global steering council.
Currently, he is an independent consultant and an adjunct faculty in the JIPMER International School of Public Health.
Senior Adviser Asia and Project Director, South Asia, for the International Crisis Group
Expertise in: International Humanitarian Law and Policy
Samina Ahmed is Senior Adviser Asia and Project Director, South Asia, for the International Crisis Group. She oversees Crisis Group’s work in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Together with our analysts throughout the region, she prepares reports on the political, social, economic and military factors that increase the risks of violent extremism and inter-state conflict, and offers policy recommendations to overcome these threats.
In general, her team focuses on political, security and stability issues in South Asia, including governance challenges; educational, judicial and security sector reform; domestic and regional militancy and terrorism; domestic insurgencies and the risks of inter-state conflict, and international involvement and intervention in the region.
She also frequently briefs representatives of foreign ministries and international organisations, and is regularly involved in advocacy efforts internationally.
Ahmed has a PhD in Political Science and an MA in International Relations from the Australian National University. Prior to joining Crisis Group, she was a research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and senior research analyst at the Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad. She was a Peace Fellow at New York University, Abu Dhabi, and a visiting researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington DC, the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, and Oxford University.
Adjunct Faculty, JIPMER International School of Public Health
Expertise in: Health Rights
Dr T Sundararaman was a professor of medicine in JIPMER, Puducherry (from 1984 to 2002), before he shifted to working full time with health systems strengthening and health policy – initially, for 5 years as the director of the State Health Resource Centre, Chhattisgarh, and then as the executive director of the National Health Systems Resource Centre for 7 years. He then taught public health and health systems in CSMCH in JNU for a year and served as professor and dean of the School of Health Systems Studies at TISS Mumbai for 4 years. He has a number of publications, both books and journal articles in the field of health systems and health policy.
Other than his professional career, Dr Sundar is well known as a champion for health rights, and has helped in organising and guiding and peoples health movements, which is a global network of civil society organisations that works for health rights and health equity. He has also served as its global coordinator and as a member of its global steering council.
Currently, he is an independent consultant and an adjunct faculty in the JIPMER International School of Public Health.
Cinnamon Lakeside Colombo
Colombo, Sri Lanka