Building systemic resilience to future outbreaks – the role of hygiene

1. Opening remarks – Maria Neira, WHO
2. Presentation on key messages and calls to action made in the WHO and UNICEF’s State of the World’s Hand Hygiene report – Kelly-Ann Naylor, UNICEF
3. Panel of 3-5 government and civil society representatives to showcase examples of the five key ‘accelerators’ identified in the report and underpinning the UN-Water SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework. Panellists will be prompted by a Chair to provide 5-minute interventions sharing their experiences of improving governance, financing, capacity, data and information or innovation to improve hand hygiene:
a. On GOVERNANCE - Deputy Director of Environmental Health for South Africa (TBC). Describing how the country’s national handwashing policy, developed in 2015, clearly spelt out the roles of government institutions in promoting handwashing and providing services, and was instrumental in enabling the country to seamlessly mount a large-scale COVID-19 response effort.
b. On FINANCE - Gov of Ethiopia representative. Describing recent efforts to develop a costed country roadmap for hand hygiene and plans for financing it
c. On CAPACITY – WASH ‘Em/COVID-19 Hygiene Hub representation – describing capacity needs of the service users, how these were met during the pandemic and what lessons we can learn for future outbreak response
d. On … - GTFCC representation. Speaking on the experience of implementing GTFCC roadmap in countries.
e. On INNOVATION – Gov of Indonesia representative. Describing Indonesia’s COVID-19 innovative monitoring system, developed by the government with support from UNICEF, tracked compliance with the national “3M” mandate to wear masks, socially distance and practice hand hygiene in schools, shopping centres, mosques and transport stations. The system was remarkable in its scale. Initially led by the Office of the President, it engaged the army, CSOs and celebrities, and was administered by volunteers, trained via WhatsApp, using smartphones to collect data. Rather than being paid, volunteers were rewarded with mobile phone credit. The system provided a trustworthy source of data, based on structured observation, rather than less accurate self-reporting.
4. Guided plenary discussion