Centering Voices. Sharing Lived Experience. Co-Creating Solutions.

The Remote and Rural Health Summit is a global gathering designed to amplify the voices, knowledge, and leadership of people working and living in remote, rural, and underserved communities.

Convened by The Network: Towards Unity for Health (TUFH)—an official non-State actor of the World Health Organization—in partnership with the National Center for Rural Health Professions, the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia, Rural Doctors Network, and WONCA Rural, this Summit is rooted in the belief that those closest to the challenges are also closest to the solutions.

Rather than speaking about remote and rural communities, this Summit creates space for communities to speak for themselves—to teach, to share lived and professional experience, and to shape global understanding of what works in practice.

A Summit Led by Communities, for Communities

The Remote and Rural Health Summit brings together:

• rural and remote health workers

• community leaders and practitioners

• educators and learners

• policymakers and system leaders

• researchers, advocates, and partners

Participants from remote and rural contexts are not only attendees—they are presenters, facilitators, contributors, and teachers. Through storytelling, case studies, interactive sessions, and dialogue, the Summit values local wisdom, contextual expertise, and community-driven innovation alongside academic and policy perspectives.

✅ What You’ll Gain at the Summit:

• First-hand insights from practitioners and communities delivering care in remote and rural settings

• Practice-based knowledge grounded in lived experience and real-world challenges

• Opportunities to learn directly from peers, across regions, cultures, and health systems

• A platform to share your own work, experience, and innovations

• A voice in shaping global competency standards and education frameworks for remote and rural health workers

• Collaborative spaces to exchange solutions, tools, and approaches that are adaptable across contexts
• Engagement in Communities of Practice, strengthening global peer-to-peer learning

From Lived Experience to Global Learning

Through the Communities of Practice for Remote and Rural Health, Summit partners are working collaboratively to develop and publish Global Competency Standards for Health Workers, informed directly by those practicing in remote and rural environments.

The Summit serves as a bridge between local experience and global action, ensuring that global frameworks, policies, and educational programs are grounded in the realities of communities on the front lines of care.

Listen to communities.
Learn from experience.
Build health systems that work—everywhere.

Thursday, August 6, 2026

• 09:30 AM – 10:00 AM     Keynote Address 
• 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM     Oral Presentations on Remote and Rural Health 
• 12:30 AM – 13:30 PM     Panel on Remote and Rural Health 
• 15:00 PM – 17:00 PM     Workshop on Remote and Rural Health