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Speaker:

Virtual

Gabrielle Fitzgerald

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Panorama

Throughout 2020, the concurrent crises of the global pandemic, economic downturn, heightened inequalities, and escalating impacts of climate change have reinforced the urgency for systems change solutions built on cross-sectoral partnerships and integrated responses.  

In the last year, Ms Fitzgerald helped bring to life two COVID-19 pandemic response initiatives:  COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa, a radically collaborative initiative that has distributed more than 80 million units of PPE to 18 sub-Saharan African countries, and the Pandemic Action Network, a nimble team of experts working to drive collective action to meet an unprecedented challenge with 140 global partners, including international institutions, civil society organizations, NGOs, media and creative agencies, philanthropies, and private-sector leaders. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has also provided a stark reminder of the inextricable link between the environment and our health. New viruses, increasing hurricanes and wildfires, and record levels of displacement are reminders of the effects of a warming planet. Since 2018, Ms Fitzgerald has been vocal about the need to break down silos across sectors to encourage partners and funders to work together in new ways, as she sees linkages between the environment and health as the next urgent frontier for integrated approaches to drive systems change. 

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In her keynote, Ms Fitzgerald will share her experience forming these “catalytic coalitions,” lessons learned, strategies that have been vital to their success, and perspectives on what is still needed to see long-term systems change in global health.