New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) Eminent thought leaders, medical practitioners and artists along with over 300 attendees from the social impact space convened here on Thursday to discuss the agenda for a “paradigm shift” in health and humanitarian efforts during emergencies at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) South Asia’s ‘Health and Humanity Summit’.
The one-day summit, held at Hotel Le Meridien, hosted discussions around ‘People Forced from Home’, ‘Equitable Access to Healthcare’, ‘Global Health Security’, and ‘Mis/Disinformation in Emergencies’ to explore contemporary challenges and potential solutions at the heart of these critical issues.
“The complexity of today’s global crises demands a comprehensive and inclusive response. We can collectively develop innovative and sustainable ways to address humanitarian challenges. As MSF, we recognize the need to reflect at all the elements that factor into our delivery of aid, to ensure we are meeting the needs of the people we aim to assist,” said Dr Farhat Mantoo, executive director at MSF South Asia.
Mantoor added that the summit intends to be “a call to others that we share the humanitarian space with, and those on the intersections of it, to coalesce, and be catalysts for change”.
Towards the realisation of this vision, marking World Humanitarian Day 2023, MSF South Asia also announced the launch of the ‘Humanitarianism in South Asia Initiative’ (HiSA) — a network of universities and research centres with a mission to incubate and co-create an interdisciplinary course on humanitarian studies in the region.
“Society today possesses many times the resources it did in 1978, yet widespread and large-scale hunger persists. We need to understand that we cannot resolve health disasters while ignoring inequality, deprivation and hunger,” said award-winning veteran journalist P Sainath, who delivered the keynote address for the inaugural Summit.
Among the many highlights of the event was also MSF’s ‘Humanity Heals’ exhibition, an interactive photography, artwork and installation display featuring the compelling stories of vulnerable populations.
The exhibit also included ‘Side by Side’ by photographer Uğur Gallenkuş in collaboration with MSF, which presents stark realities of those on opposite ends of opportunity and circumstance.
Another exhibition, ‘The Glass Room’ by Tactical Tech, hosted by the Internet Freedom Foundation, explored how misinformation is normalized, and how the decisions made by the gatekeepers of technologies can influence our behaviours and opinions. PTI MG MAH MAH
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