The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s 22nd annual Humanitarian Symposium and Prize Ceremony is returning to Los Angeles after taking place the past several years in New York, Washington, D.C., and Geneva, Switzerland. For over two decades, the Foundation has awarded the Humanitarian Prize—the world’s largest humanitarian award at $2 million—to nonprofit organizations around the world that make extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering.

This year’s Symposium and Prize Ceremony will be held on October 11, 2017, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills. The theme of the event is "The Future of Humanitarian Action: Bridging Our Divides." The daylong conference will bring together international thought leaders and humanitarians with a focus on "reaching across borders, cultures, and sectors to navigate an evolving humanitarian landscape."

The Hilton Foundation, a leader in helping the world’s vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, is a supporter of the Pacific Council’s Global Water Scarcity Project. One of the foundation’s main emphases is working to guarantee sustainable access to safe water for people in sub-Saharan Africa, which it does by investing in advancing creative solutions and service delivery models, strengthening water governance by supporting local institutions and providers, and addressing knowledge gaps by collecting data on water scarcity.

"The Prize will help support our current research efforts to move forward our in-house pipeline of new, low cost products and interventions addressing a wide range of public health problems in developing countries."

Dr. John Clemens, executive director of icddr,b

The Pacific Council’s Global Water Scarcity Project aims to connect California’s water scarcity issues to international affairs ranging from trade to energy to security, and is designed to inform policy-making related to water scarcity, with the hope of helping to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The recipient of the 2017 Hilton Humanitarian Prize will be the Bangladesh-based global health research institute icddr,b, which is dedicated to solving the most serious health issues facing low and middle-income countries. Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, for more than 50 years, icddr,b has been at the forefront of innovative, low-cost health solutions that have resulted in saving millions of lives globally. The organization focuses on solving public health problems such as infectious diseases through innovative scientific research, including laboratory-based, clinical, epidemiological, and health systems research.

"We are honored to receive the 2017 Hilton Humanitarian Prize," said Dr. John Clemens, executive director of icddr,b. "The Prize will help support our current research efforts to move forward our in-house pipeline of new, low cost products and interventions addressing a wide range of public health problems in developing countries, including severe acute malnutrition and pneumonia in children, tuberculosis, and life-threatening maternal hemorrhage during childbirth."

Previous recipients of the Humanitarian Prize include the Task Force for Global Health, Landesa, and Fountain House/Clubhouse International. The Hilton Foundation is now accepting nominations for the 2018 Hilton Humanitarian Prize through October 18, 2017.

"We have a longstanding history in Los Angeles and are proud to bring the event back to our organization’s hometown."

Peter Laugharn, president and CEO of the Hilton Foundation

Speakers at the symposium and prize ceremony will include UN High Level Commissioner and Sustainable Development Goals Advocate Dr. Alaa Murabit, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, world-renowned author Deepak Chopra, and many more. While the event is invitation-only, it will be publicly available to live stream anytime between 9:00am and 4:00pm PT on Wednesday, October 11, via Facebook or Hilton’s website.

The event’s return to Los Angeles poses a unique opportunity to grow awareness about another Pacific Council initiative, Global LA, which aims to strengthen Los Angeles as a global city and make it an international hub for business, culture, the arts, and more. 

"We have a longstanding history in Los Angeles and are proud to bring the event back to our organization’s hometown," said Laugharn. "As today’s world is increasingly divided, our annual symposium serves as a gathering for thought leaders from various sectors to identify impactful ways to bridge divides and explore solutions to extraordinary challenges."

____________________

Justin Chapman is the Communications Associate at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Isabella Lloyd-Damnjanovic was the Communications Fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy.

For more information on the Hilton Foundation and its Humanitarian Symposium and Prize Ceremony, please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org.