GHP’s Global Health Week will be held April 22 to 26, 2024! Global Health Week 2024 will mark the 30th anniversary of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) held in Cairo. The ICPD redefined population and development issues by emphasizing that the protection of individual human rights, including gender equity and reproductive health and rights, must be at the heart of population and development programs. During Global Health Week, we will analyze the ICPD’s progress and setbacks, discuss current and future priorities, and explore topics not addressed in Cairo, such as climate change and LGBTQIA+ issues.
Explainer: What is the ICPD and why does it matter?
Read the Programme of Action adopted at the ICPD Cairo conference on this website.
Learn about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on this website.
Schedule of Events
Monday, April 22, 2024: Faculty Debate
Resolved: High quality evidence about what works is the most important gap in maternal health policymaking
Monday, April 22 / 1 – 2pm / Building 1, 1208* and Zoom
*Please note this location change
Join us for a debate featuring Assistant Professor of Global Health Kevin Croke and Associate Professor Global Health Economics Margaret McConnell! Margaret and Kevin will debate the role of evidence in maternal health policymaking. This debate will be moderated by current student Jioni Tuck.
Register for the faculty debate here.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024: Virtual Conversation with Carmen Barroso and Kelly Blanchard
Shifting global health paradigms and effective advocacy: Feminists making the impossible possible in Cairo
Tuesday, April 23 / 1 – 2pm / Zoom
It is widely accepted that the 1994 ICPD in Cairo changed paradigms in population policies, but it is usually forgotten that the conference also contributed to a shift of paradigms in global health: from one focused on “patients” to one focused on persons with a right to health; from a uterus-based patient perspective to a holistic approach towards women as agents with multiple needs and capabilities. At the 1994 ICPD, feminists from around the world organized themselves, created alliances, and learned the art and craft of advocacy to effectively propose new alternatives from a feminist perspective. Join Carmen Barroso, participant in the 1994 ICPD and former director of the Western Hemisphere Region of International Planned Parenthood, and Kelly Blanchard, president of Ibis Reproductive Health, for a conversation about shifting population and global health paradigms and the impact of advocacy and civil society engagement.
Register for the virtual conversation here.
Thursday, April 25, 2024: Thursday Brown Bag Seminar
“I was obligated to accept”: Coercion and autonomy in global family planning programs 30 years after Cairo
Thursday, April 25 / 1 – 2pm / Zoom
The Global Health Week Brown Bag Seminar will be presented by Leigh Senderowicz, ScD, MPH. Leigh is an assistant professor in the department of gender and women’s studies and the department of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is a public health researcher and feminist social demographer focusing on global sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender, and coloniality. Her mixed-methods research focuses on contraceptive autonomy, exploring the ways that new approaches to measurement and evaluation can promote person-centered care, health equity, and reproductive freedom.
Join the Brown Bag seminar here, no registration required.
Friday, April 26, 2024: Global Health Week Symposium and Poster Day
Global Health Week Symposium and Poster Day
Friday, April 26 / 1:30 – 5pm with reception / Joseph B. Martin Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA
Join us for the Global Health Week Symposium and Poster Day! Natalia Kanem, MD, MPH, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will present the keynote address. Then, in panel 1, “The Importance of the 1994 ICPD–Cairo,” panelists Judith Bruce, Marcia Castro, Jacqueline Pitanguy, and Steven Sinding will reflect on the significance of the 1994 ICPD. In panel 2, “Cairo +30: Old Promises and New Challenges,” Brittany Charlton, Jewel Gausman, Josh Glasser, and Ana Langer will consider topics that were insufficiently covered in Cairo and discuss how to best move forward. Marcia Castro will announce poster day awards, and a reception will follow from 5 to 6:30 pm.
Full symposium agenda and speaker biographies here.
Register for the Global Health Week Symposium here.
Harvard Chan School hosts a diverse array of speakers, invited to share both scholarly research and personal perspectives. They do not speak for the School, and hosting them does not imply endorsement of their views, organizations, or employers.
