CUGH 2023 - From Science to Policy
How the pandemic instrument can prevent pandemics and enable equity
Update
The conference was a great success! In a collaboration between FOUR PAWS’ Pandemics Campaigns unit and our US office, we were able to draw attention to the importance of animal welfare in global health and to build stronger bridges between advocacy groups, academia, and policy makers both in the US and across the globe. Thank you to everyone who attended!
In-person Satellite Session
Date: Thursday, 13 April 2023
Time: 8 a.m.- 12 p.m. local time (EDT)
Location: Washington Hilton Hotel | Columbia Room 11, 12 | Washington, DC
At the World Health Assembly in December 2021, global governments agreed to jointly develop an international instrument to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. While the countries continue to negotiate the terms of the instrument in the ongoing drafting process, the events of recent years have shown clearly that the root causes of pandemics must be addressed.
As part of our continuing work on pandemic prevention and animal welfare, FOUR PAWS will host an in-person satellite session at CUGH 2023 (Consortium of Universities for Global Health). Bringing together a panel of experts, the session aims to assess how the pandemic instrument can bridge gaps in global policy, identify essentials of the pandemic instrument, and expand on the science and evidence driven policy measures that would create an effective pathway to prevent pandemics and enable equity. The findings will be collated and published as a conference paper.
CUGH 2023 In-person Satellite Session
Thursday, 13 April 2023 | 8am-12pm | Washington Hilton Hotel
Panelists & Collaborating Organisations
Dr. Chadia Wannous, World Organisation for Animal Health
(Participating by video statement)
Dr. Chadia Wannous is the One Health Global Coordinator for the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH-founded as OIE) supporting One Health initiatives, including on emerging and remerging and endemic zoonotic diseases, AMR, food safety and integrating the environment into the One Health approach. Before joining WOAH, Dr. Wannous coordinated the implementation of the health components of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and led the Science and Technology Partnership and Advisory Group at the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2017). She was the Senior Policy Advisor to the UN Special Envoy on Ebola response in West Africa (2014-2015) and to the UN System Influenza Coordination (2011-2015) leading strategic planning and technical support to countries’ preparedness and response interventions and building strategic partnerships, liaison and coordination with multiple stakeholders. She coordinated the 'Toward a Safer World (TASW) Network- for Pandemic Preparedness’ since 2011. Dr. Wannous is a public health professional with PhD in International Health and Development from Tulane University in USA and with extensive training and experience in health emergencies prevention, preparedness and response at the animal, human and environment interfaces.
Daniela Battaglia, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(Participating by video statement)
Daniela Battaglia is Livestock Production Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO, Animal Production and Health Division). Within FAO, she is responsible for the animal welfare programme, coordinator of the FAO Sustainable Livestock Technical Network and member of the FAO Working Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. Daniela, holds an M.Sc. in Agricultural Science and another in Tropical Animal Health and Production. Before joining the FAO in 2001, Daniela has worked for nine years for the European Commission and has been based in in several countries: Belgium, UK, Peru, Suriname, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Israel and Tunisia.
Dr. Catherine Machalaba, One Health High Level Expert Panel
Catherine Machalaba is the Principal Scientist for Health and Policy at the conservation and global health organization EcoHealth Alliance. She was a lead author of the World Bank Operational Framework for Strengthening Human, Animal and Environmental Public Health Systems at their Interface (“One Health Operational Framework”) published in 2018 to assist countries and donor institutions in implementing One Health approaches. She is a member of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP), an expert group formed in 2021 to advise the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the United Nations Environment Programme. She served as program officer for the IUCN Species Survival Commission Wildlife Health Specialist Group for 10 years, and as Chair of the American Public Health Association’s One Health (formerly Veterinary Public Health) section. Catherine holds a masters in public health and a PhD in environmental and planetary health sciences.
Dr. Chris Walzer, Wildlife Conservation Society Global
Dr. Chris Walzer is the Executive Director of Health at the Wildlife Conservation Society Global program. He is a board-certified wildlife veterinarian, tenured professor of Conservation Medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria. Author of more than 130 peer-reviewed research publications and numerous book chapters, lecturing widely on health and conservation. Chris has an internationally recognized diverse One Health expertise, working with wildlife, on the human-livestock-wildlife interfaces, gained from combined years of leadership and research in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. His work has recently focused on the nexus of emerging zoonotic-origin pathogens environmental encroachment and the commercial wildlife trade. Over the past decade; he has led several successful large-scale EU-funded ecological connectivity and biodiversity conservation projects in the Alps. Chris is the recipient of several research and service awards most notably the Distinguished Environmentalist Award from the Mongolian Ministry of Nature and Environment for contributions to the conservation of Mongolia's rare and endangered species.
Prof. Sam Halabi, Georgetown University
Sam F. Halabi is the Co-Director of the Center for Transformational Health Law at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and a Professor at the Georgetown University School of Health. In 2018, he served as the Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy, and Ethics. Professor Halabi’s research career has focused on the ethical, legal, and regulatory dimensions of biomedical innovation and collaboration especially in the context of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response. His work on international cooperation and data sharing in the context of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response has been funded by NIAID, Resolve to Save Lives, the U.S. Department of State, the Wellcome Trust, and the World Health Organization. He has published 4 books and more than 70 manuscripts in areas including data sharing during infectious disease emergencies, the development and deployment of vaccines, One Health governance, public health ethics, and vector-borne disease surveillance.
Dr. Ann Linder, Harvard Law School
Ann Linder is Wildlife and Live Animal Markets Research Fellow at Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her research focuses on articulating points and modes of zoonotic transmission across animal supply chains, as well as understanding how regulation impacts spillover risk. Prior to this, she worked as a wildlife policy analyst for the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University. She received her JD from Stanford Law School and holds a Masters of Science in Animals and Public Policy from Tufts University. Much of her work focuses on the intersection of animal law and criminal law, including wildlife trafficking. Linder spent time working with the Animal Protection Unit for the City of Austin, Texas after serving as a Legislative Policy Fellow for the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Program in 2018. Her work has been published by Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, and Lewis and Clark Law School, as well as the New York Bar Association.
Dr. Hope Ferdowsian, Phoenix Zones Initiative
Dr. Hope Ferdowsian, MD, MPH, FACP, FACPM is cofounder and president of Phoenix Zones Initiative and a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Over two decades, she has worked across six continents as an internal medicine and preventive medicine physician with public health and ethics expertise. Her expertise covers climate change, hunger, chronic diseases, emerging infectious diseases, poverty, forced migration, and conflict. She has spoken across the globe about the links between human, animal, and planetary rights, health, and wellbeing. Her work, including Phoenix Zones: Where Strength Is Born and Resilience Lives (UChicagoPress, 2018), has been featured in the Times Literary Supplement, Scientific American, HuffPost, and by the BBC, Voice of America, and other international news outlets. She taught at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and Georgetown University School of Medicine, and she was named a Humanitarian of the Year in the American College of Physicians.
L. Syd M Johnson, PhD, Center for Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University
L. Syd M Johnson, PhD is a philosopher/bioethicist/neuroethicist at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University, and an ethics consultant at Upstate’s four hospitals. She’s an Associate Editor for Neuroethics, and a member of the NIH BRAIN Initiative Neuroethics Working Group. Dr. Johnson’s books include The Ethics of Uncertainty: Entangled Ethical and Epistemic Risks in Disorders of Consciousness, The Routledge Handbook of Neuroethics , Chimpanzee Rights: The Philosophers’ Brief, and Neuroethics and Nonhuman Animals. Her research focuses on ethical issues related to animal ethics, research ethics, and brain injuries, including brain death and disorders of consciousness. Her interest in all things with brains includes every kind of critter, zombies, and robots.
John Scanlon AO, End Wildlife Crime
(Participating by video statement)
John Scanlon AO served as Secretary-General of CITES from 2010-2018. He was African Parks first Special Envoy from 2018-2020 and is now CEO of the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI) Foundation, Chair of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime and Chair of the UK Government’s Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund. John is also a Board of Trustees member for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He has worked in the private sector, in government and in senior positions with IUCN and UNEP. He holds a Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws (Environmental), and is an accredited mediator. In 2019, John was awarded the prestigious Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to wildlife conservation and protection through roles with international organizations.
Nicoletta Dentico, Society for International Development
Nicoletta Dentico is a journalist, writer and senior policy analyst in global health and development. And above all, a health rights and justice advocate. After directing Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF) in Italy, she played an active role in the MSF campaign on Access to Essential Medicines. She worked as consultant of the World Health Organization (WHO), currently leads the global health program for the Society for International Development (SID, www.sidint.net) and is the co-president of the Geneva Global Health Hub (G2H2).
Nina Jamal, FOUR PAWS International
Nina Jamal from FOUR PAWS International is the pandemics and animal welfare expert and the International Head of the Pandemics and Programme Campaigns Strategies Unit. Nina has a Master of Science in Environmental Sciences with specialization in Environmental Policy Planning from the American University of Beirut. Before joining FOUR PAWS, Nina worked on UN climate policy and EU level climate campaigns as well as an environmental consultant in the private sector on energy and climate and the UN on the Montreal Protocol.
Organised by FOUR PAWS in collaboration with End Wildlife Crime, World Animal Protection, Phoenix Zones Initiative, Born Free, Wildlife Conservation Society, World Federation for Animals, and Brighter Green
