Sultana Afdhal, WISH CEO
Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH 2022), taking place weeks ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, will have a focus on exploring the health legacy of the tournament.
Three of the reports commissioned by WISH ahead of the summit will be dedicated to discussing Qatar's efforts to use the World Cup to deliver a legacy of positive health outcomes in the future, said Chief Executive Officer of WISH, Sultana Afdhal.
In an exclusive interview with The Peninsula, Afdhal said WISH 2022 provides a platform to share significant strides Qatar has made in the sphere of workers’ welfare, highlight public health benefits of hosting the tournament, document the country’s World Cup journey, and highlight the work that has been done to date to make it the most accessible world cup ever.
WISH in its tenth year, will host the 2022 Summit on October 4 to 6. It is the sixth biennial summit and the first hybrid edition. “This is going to be a really special summit; and pre-World Cup reports chronicle the journey of Qatar in three key areas leading the tournament. For us this is key to host the summit right now, with topics that matter to people beyond Qatar — migrant workers’ welfare, major sporting events and healthy lifestyles, and disability and accessibility,” said Afdhal.
WISH-commissioned evidence-based report on Migrant Workers’ Welfare will examine access to healthcare services for migrant labourers in Qatar and the progress made in this area to date; the report on Major Sporting Events and Healthy Lifestyles will examine how mega sporting events can promote active, healthy lifestyles and behaviours, and generate a lasting public health legacy for the host country; while Accessible by Design will discuss initiatives undertaken by Qatar in the lead-up to Qatar 2022 in terms of increasing accessibility for the local population and tournament attendees.
WISH 2022 Summit will have the theme ‘Healing The Future,’ and four core themes of sports and health, disability and inclusivity, post-COVID-19 legacy, and wellbeing.
Afdhal said that discussions at the summit will revolve around issues such as building health system resilience, climate change and food security.
“COVID-19 showed the resilience and challenges of healthcare systems and we will discuss how we can use high-resolution data in near real-time to inform and enable evidence-based policy and clinical decisions; sports and health will encompass Qatar’s public health journey in hosting the upcoming tournament; disability and inclusivity will focus on how accessible stadiums are carefully crafted as a readiness for the World Cup as well as show that people with disability are part of civil society; and wellbeing will be on mental and physical wellbeing,” said Afdhal.
Over three days, WISH 2022 will be based for the first time at Multaqa within Education City. The event will convene global healthcare experts, policymakers, and innovators in Doha to work collaboratively towards building a healthier world.
“We have carefully curated the event and we are planning to attract different audiences for different topics. We expect between 1500- 1800 participants over the three days and anticipate reaching an online audience of around 8,000 people from around the world,” said Afdhal.
“As new features, WISH 2022 Summit will host a photo gallery celebrating the lives of people with complex needs and disability, including work of award-winning British documentary photographer Giles Duley and another exhibition focusing on the history and legacy of Islamic medicine,” she said.
Interactive activities around the innovation showcases and a Doha Debates-led hybrid studio will be featured at WISH 2022.
Over a decade, WISH has established itself as a major fixture in the global healthcare calendar.
“This year is the tenth anniversary of WISH, which has throughout been a platform for sharing innovative ideas to help solve the most pressing global healthcare challenges.
“We have grown every year since our inception in both visibility and attendance. We have strong partnerships with key stakeholders like Unicef, WHO and Save the Children,” said Afdhal.
Our innovation competition has grown from strength to strength. This year we have over 600 entries. This is a real testament that there is awareness of the need of cost cutting innovative ideas to be delivered to address healthcare challenges,” she added.
The research conducted by WISH serves as a starting point for the discussions that take place at each global gathering.
“Research reports that we produce before each summit have had very wide reach, especially within Qatar, and they have created quite an impact within the Ministry of Public Health. We are proud to say number of research reports have been the basis for changing strategies within Qatar including in genomics, dementia and even helping to shape the national health system,” said Afdhal.
Those wishing to attend the summit can register online.
