Singapore to host ‘world’s first global hygiene summit’

THE Global Hygiene Summit 2023, organised in partnership with the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (Singapore) and in collaboration with the World Bank, is being hosted in Singapore on 15 and 16 February 2023.

The Reckitt Global Hygiene Institute (RGHI), a not-for-profit foundation that was established in 2020 with a multi-year $25 million grant from Reckitt, is focussed on plugging significant gaps in the health research space and improving access to information that will bridge epidemiology, public health and behaviour change. The Global Hygiene Summit will align with this aim by informing the global health agenda, stimulating discussion that could lead to the adoption of better and more sustainable hygienic practises globally.

The event is designed to create a forum for multi-level and multi-disciplinary discussions around hygiene science, behaviour, economics, and real-world experiences and outcomes. It will bring together scientists, politicians, the private sector, and civil society to generate impact through the intersection between health and hygiene - which is vital to safeguarding the physical and economic wellbeing of populations worldwide, through COVID-19 and beyond.

Professor Yee Sin Leo, executive director at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, said: “Hygiene generally refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases. Despite its intimate link to health, hygiene is ill-defined and often intertwined with socioeconomic status, and cultural beliefs and practices. Hygiene is a fundamental pre-requisite for sustainable public health and with our dual mission of clinical and public health, NCID is pleased to partner for this inaugural summit in Singapore. Leveraging on prominent stakeholders, this summit will elevate hygiene to the highest global agenda in promoting and sustaining health.”

RGHI is already funding a multitude of projects, with the first body of completed RGHIfunded research recently published in Nature Communications. The research produced by scientists at the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health and the Yale School of Public Health focuses on the connection between long-term drought and diarrhoea among children under five in low- and middle-income countries.

“This kind of research is exactly why RGHI was established,” said Dr Simon Sinclair, RGHI executive director. “We need concrete data that points to a course of action that governments can take to better safeguard public health. The Global Hygiene Summit will create a positive and stimulating environment that aims to persuade the various hygiene stakeholders that working together will, ultimately, create a stronger voice for change. By articulating the shape and importance of the hygiene field and the value of rigorous science, and by creating positive changes in hygiene behaviours, the Global Hygiene Summit will convene a community of practice around hygiene that can effectively influence policy makers.”

In order to deliver a coordinated approach, the Global Hygiene Summit will use three themes across its programme: practice, policy and science. Planned plenary sessions include: Hygiene: a new approach for the 21st century; Global burden (on wellness) through the hygiene lens; Synthesising lessons towards an actionable plan for global hygiene; and Creating hygiene champions.

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