Newsletter 02/2021: #WHS2021 Central Topics and Patrons

Dear friends and colleagues,

In these difficult and unusual times we are currently facing, one of the many things the COVID-19 pandemic has made undoubtedly clear: health needs to be a global public asset. With the whole world feeling the effects of SARS-CoV-2 and its mutations, vaccine doses should  be shared equitably. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), instead of trying to protect their own nations first, rightly urged the global political leaders to engage in a collective response towards the pandemic. At last year’s World Health Summit, Dr. Tedros already stated: “We need a common understanding and global approach when dealing with COVID-19 and subsequent pandemics.”

The world is advised to act as a global community. It is in all our interests to strategically share the limited supply of vaccines we currently have. The extend to which we have made progress will be one of the central debates and topics during the upcoming World Health Summit in October.

COVID-19 shows very clearly that one of the most urgent issues of our time is society’s pandemic preparation and response. It is of utmost importance to improve this worldwide in order to better address future threats. Therefore, "Pandemic Preparedness: Lessons Learned from COVID-19" will remain a central theme of the World Health Summit.

While the program of the upcoming World Health Summit is well in preparation, we are also proud and honoured to announce the first three confirmations of our patrons for 2021: The President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the above-mentioned Dr. Tedros.

Dear friends and colleagues, in our view there can only be one solution to overcome these current challenges: facing them with common understanding and mutual strength, multilateralism, health diplomacy, and international cooperation.

Let us work together and try to make a real difference for global health.

With kind regards,

Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), have confirmed their continued support of the World Health Summit as High Patrons of the World Health Summit 2021. 

M8 Alliance Webinar Series on Migrant and Refugee Health

The second event of the M8 Alliance Webinar Series on Migrant and Refugee Health "Migrant Health Issues in Massive Migration Areas in the Covid period" organized by Sapienza University of Rome took place on February 22 in cooperation with Association of Academic Health Centers International (AAHCI). The webinar featured Ozge Karadag Caman from Columbia University, Amirhossein Takian from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Selma Karabey from Istanbul University and more.

Rewatch the 90-minutes-session here
Get all information on speakers and program here

Migrant and Refugee Health has been a focus topic of the M8 Alliance since 2016 with regular expert meetings and sessions at the World Health Summit.

Get all information on the webinar series, expert meetings, and the focus topic here
Recordings of all webinars are available on the World Health Summit YouTube channel

Save the Dates

M8 Alliance Expert Meeting - Webinar: Ensuring the Covid-19 Vaccine Reaches Undocumented Migrants
March 30, 2021, Digital 
Sapienza University of Rome and PICUM

M8 Alliance Expert Meeting - Webinar: Digital Solutions for Migrant and Refugee Health
April 19, 2021, Digital
Sapienza University of Rome and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

M8 Alliance Expert Meeting - Webinar: Strengthening Healthcare Systems in Europe while Improving Migrant Health
May 27, 2021, Digital
Sapienza University of Rome and Emergency

The World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2021 – Uganda, Kampala & Digital will take place from June 27-30.

Mark your calenders and get more information here 

Happy First Birthday to the German Alliance for Global Health Research

One year ago, the German Alliance for Global Health Research (GLOHRA) was launched as an initiative to tackle today’s global health challenges via interdisciplinary and collaborative research. It was initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to forge new links and mechanisms of cooperation – across research disciplines, institutions, sectors and countries. Since then, more than 600 researchers from publicly-funded institutions in Germany have joined.

Learn more about GLOHRA's development and achievements in its first year here

Join the World Health Summit Community and get in touch with fellow members: global health enthusiasts from all over the world. You also get access to a selection of past World Health Summit speaker presentations and benefit from an expedited process for your next World Health Summit registration.