Newsletter 05/2023: WHS 2022 Program News, WHA 76, G7 Summit

Dear friends,

This May presented big opportunities to strengthen multilateral cooperation for global health. At the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, the G7 leaders discussed pressing issues of global importance, including global health architecture, universal health coverage, and health innovations and technologies. 

In the year of WHO’s 75th anniversary, the 76th World Health Assembly received particular attention and provided a great platform to connect, launch, and report on the latest developments in global health, among them the final report by the WHO Council on Economics of Health for All and the commitment for a 20% increase of assessed contributions by WHO member states. This is a welcome step to empower WHO to fulfill its mandate as the leading international public health authority, however, a sustainable financial base is greatly needed. Also, WHS colleagues were busy in Geneva meeting numerous global health stakeholders to discuss and prepare for the upcoming World Health Summit in Berlin (more below).

This May was also a month of a new beginning for the World Health Summit: we finally welcomed Carsten Schicker as our new managing director. As promised in last month’s WHS news: Read more about Carsten in this edition - just scroll down. And of course meet him in person at WHS 2023 in October in Berlin.

Stay safe and healthy!

Get the latest news on the World Health Summit 2023 #WHS2023 taking place October 15-17 in Berlin and online and look forward to participating: Registration will open soon.

WHS 2023 will focus on seven central topics:

- Learning from COVID-19 for Future Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response

- Recommitting to Universal Health Coverage

- Sustainable Health for People and Planet

- G7/G20 Measures to Enhance Global Health Equity and Security

- Harnessing the Power of Digital Technologies for Global Health

- World Health Organization’s 75th Anniversary

- Innovations to Accelerate the Fight Against Tuberculosis

Recommitting to Universal Health Coverage asks how we can build on the conclusions of the UN High-Level meeting on UHC in September and explores how to achieve new political commitment and sustainable investment in UHC. 

Sustainable Health for People and Planet explores how different UN agencies and cross-sectoral stakeholders have to jointly address ongoing and emerging crosscutting issues to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and health.

G7/G20 Measures to Enhance Global Health Equity and Security reflects on how the most recent actions and recommendations by G7/G20 are addressing the significant investment requirements in social development, Universal Health Coverage and Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response.

All detailed descriptions of the central topics
 

Speaker Confirmations 

Visit the speaker page on our website to get the latest overview of who will be speaking at WHS 2023. 

See the World Health Summit website for regular updates

On May 15, Carsten Schicker joined the World Health Summit as the new managing director. He brings many years of experience in management and strategic development, having worked for Bauer Media Group, the media, education, and services group Bertelsmann, and the management consulting firm McKinsey. Carsten is convinced of the need for multistakeholder approaches in global health: "The last few years in particular have shown that the key to solving many global health problems lies in international exchange and cooperation between science, business, politics and society. The World Health Summit provides the ideal platform for this."

Learn more about Carsten in the "Meet the World Health Summit Team" section below.

The World Health Summit and the Virchow Foundation for Global Health are working together to promote global health issues in line with the health-related UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Both organizations strengthen their close cooperation through a dedicated partnership agreement with a focus on humanitarian, multilateral and multisectoral engagement as well as science-based health strategy and policy. 

Read more about the division of tasks, activities, and objectives

Webinar Series on Migrant and Refugee Health

Save the date for a new edition of the M8 Alliance Expert Meeting - Webinar: "From generating evidence to implementing medical care: how to improve the health of migrants and refugees?"
June 23 2023, 2:00-4:00PM CEST, Sapienza University of Rome & Geneva University Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva
Digital participation

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.

Want to know more on on the webinar series, expert meetings, and the focus topic? Here's the info
Recordings of all webinars are available on the World Health Summit YouTube channel

WHO World Health Assembly: Saving Lives, Driving Health for All

In the year of its 75th anniversary, WHO welcomed its member states as well as countless actors in global health to the 76th World Health Assembly. An initial step was made at WHA 76 to improve the long-standing issue of WHO's sustainable financing as the WHO member states committed to increase assessed contributions to support WHO by 20% for 2024-2025. This will be important to enable WHO to fulfill its mandate to "act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work". 

Get all info on WHA 76
Including
Final report by the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All (presentation of first brief at WHS 2021)
2023 Progress report: Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All (launch of the Global Action Plan at WHS 2018)
 

WHS at WHA 76 in Geneva

G7 Summit: Strong Commitment to Developing and Strengthening the Global Health Architecture

The G7 Hiroshima Summit this month was the first G7 as the world is transitioning beyond the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the key issues aside from the current armed conflicts were discussions on energy and climate change, and global health. The main points: a strong commitment to developing and strengthening the global health architecture, achieving a more resilient, equitable and sustainable universal health coverage by 2030, the promotion of health innovation, and accelerating progress toward SDG 3. Prior to the meeting, the G7 Health Ministers set the health agenda in Nagasaki.

Health discussed in three chapters (33-35) of the G7 Leaders' Communiqué

G7 Nagasaki Health Ministers' Communiqué
 

Opinion: Rethinking International Cooperation for Global Challenges by Axel Pries

"The most prevalent health threats might differ from location to location, but ultimately, health cannot be maintained sustainably unless we seriously commit to prevention and ensure that adequate access to healthcare is realized everywhere," says WHS President Axel Pries in a piece calling for a new approach to international cooperation in the new G7 Japan - Hiroshima Summit publication by World Health Summit partner The Global Governance Project. The edition features contributions from the G7 heads of state on the challenges of today. 

Read the publication and Axel Pries' article
 

Event: From the Berlin School of Medicine to Global Health

"From the Berlin School of Medicine to Global Health, A Core Topic of European Policy" was the theme of a recent event organized by the Berlin Society for Medicine and the Virchow Foundation for Global Health and in cooperation with the Charité Center for Global Health and the World Health Summit.

Get all info (German only)
 

Register Now: One Sustainable Health for All 

From July 5-7, the One Sustainable Health for All Forum 2023 focussing on inclusive and adaptive systems for health will take place as am international multisite event, both on-site and virtually, as part of an inclusive process. Join the World Health Summit partner in Lyon, France or online for free. 

Register for digital or on-site participation

Who’s behind the World Health Summit? Let's introduce members of the Berlin office. Here is part three: 

Check out the next newsletter to meet more team members and visit our website to view all.

Check out the latest info, recent projects, and upcoming events on the Charité Center for Global Health website

World Health Summit 2023 

JW Marriott Hotel Berlin
Stauffenbergstraße 26
10785 Berlin, Germany
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