Newsletter 05/2021: Global Health in the World's Focus

Dear friends,

May has been tremendously important for global health:
•    As a result of the Global Health Summit, organized by the European Commission and Italy, the Rome Declaration was presented,
•    the WHO and Germany announced the plan to establish a new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence in Berlin,
•    US President Joe Biden announced his support for temporarily waiving patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines, and
•    the World Health Assembly, WHO’s decision-making body, started on May 24 with COVID-19 as the core topic.

At the summit in Rome – a first of its kind - all G20 countries agreed on common principles to overcome COVID-19 and to prevent and prepare for future pandemics. For Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and high patron of the World Health Summit the Rome Declaration is “groundbreaking and really historical, because we have for the very first time the G-20 (…) – all of them committing to basic principles.” The main message of the summit is a clear no to health nationalism and a clear yes to international cooperation.

The new WHO hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation in Berlin will also reflect international and multilateral cooperation. It is a collaboration between the WHO and Germany and another important positive signal for global health. As German Chancellor Angela Merkel, also our high patron, put it: “The WHO hub will be a global platform for pandemic prevention, bringing together various governmental, academic and private sector institutions”.

We are very much looking forward to collaborate closely with the WHO hub, which will be established in autumn. The World Health Summit sees international and multistakeholder cooperation as the only way to tackle the many global health challenges. Responding to threats like COVID-19 requires a broad societal approach and international collaboration among all sectors. It is not easy and requires continuous efforts by all to balance local and national needs with global viewpoints. However, it is more obvious than ever that global threats require global action. This is in our common interest.

Dear friends, it is only a few weeks until we all meet at the World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Kampala: The first African edition of the annual Regional Meeting will take place under the presidency of Charles Ibingira from June 27- 30 in Uganda’s capital and online. Organized by Makerere University in partnership with the Government of Uganda, it will bring together international experts from all health-related sectors – with a special focus on Health in Africa.

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

With kind regards,

Mark your calendars: The World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2021 – Uganda, Kampala & Digital will take place from June 27-30. The whole event will be available online.

Experts from around the world and especially many African countries will discuss a large number of diverse topics of great importance for global health and for health in Africa in particular.
Sessions include:

- Building Sustainable Partnerships for Addressing the Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) 
- Digital Health: Promises and Challenges towards SDG 3 
- Intersection of COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Africa's Journey towards Achieving the SDGs and Universal Health Coverage 

...and many more

To get all details on speakers, program and registration, visit the Regional Meeting website here 
For information on tickets, visit here

Contact the director of the organizing secretariat Hanifah N. Bukirwa

M8 Alliance Webinar Series on Migrant and Refugee Health

Register for the webinar on "Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in Migration" on June 18, 3:00 PM CET. 

The fifth M8 Alliance Expert Meeting webinar is organized by Sapienza University of Rome together with CRESPPA and HEARD.

Get all information on registration, 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

IAP Young Physician Leaders: Call for Nominations

The InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) is seeking candidates for the 10th IAP Young Physician Leaders (YPL) Programme to be held on 22-26 October 2021 in conjunction with the World Health Summit 2021 in Berlin. The program is seeking to award up to 20 outstanding Young Physician Leaders under the age of 40 who pursue careers in medical education, clinical leadership, public health, health policy and health services management and who are interested in leadership and collaboration within the IAP network. Nomination deadline is June 30. 

More information on this year's IAP Young Physician Leaders nominations here
More information on the program and previous participants here

Global Health Summit: No to Vaccine Nationalism

The Global Health Summit on May 21 in Rome, co-hosted by the European Commission and Italy, as chair of the G20, ended with a clear no to vaccine nationalism. The European Union announced the donation of 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to middle- and low-income countries before the end of the year, and the world leaders agreed on a new commitment to vaccine equity. In their concluding Rome Declaration, they called for voluntary licensing and technology transfers to boost vaccine production. The conclusions did not include any mention of the proposal made by the US administration to lift vaccines' intellectual property rights.

Read the Rome Declaration here

WHO and Germany Launch New Global Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence

The World Health Organization and Germany will establish a new global hub for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation. The hub, based in Berlin, will work with partners around the world to lead innovations in data analytics across the largest network of global data to predict, prevent, detect, prepare for, and respond to pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide. The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence is part of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme to drive innovations to increase availability and linkage of diverse data, develop tools and predictive models for risk analysis, and to monitor disease control measures, community acceptance and infodemics.

Read more here

74th World Health Assembly, May 24 - June 1

The 74th World Health Assemby kicked off virtually on May 24 with statements from various world leaders, health ministers and other high-ranking officials. The central topic: "Ending this pandemic, preventing the next: building together a healthier, safer and fairer world." In his opening address, WHO Director-General Tedros said the spread of COVID-19 is being perpetuated by a "scandalous inequity" in vaccine distribution. And German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the idea of a "global health threat council". She said leaders should provide the WHO with "lasting financial and personal support." 

The annual World Health Assembly is the highest decision-making body of the World Health Organization. 

Read more on the 74th World Health Assembly here 

Second WHO Health For All Film Festival 

The World Health Organization's second call for entries to its Health for All Film Festival received nearly 1,200 submissions from 110 countries. Almost half of the short films feature themes related to COVID-19, revealing the pandemic's pervasive and universal consequences. The main competition categories for the Health for All Film Festival are aligned with the WHO’s global goals for public health. The jury recommended winners to WHO Director-General Tedros, who then made the final decision. The awards ceremony took place online mid-May. 

Read more here and find the official selection and awards here

Print Publication Handbook of Global Health Now Available

The large reference work Handbook of Global Health, which features contributions from Robin Haring, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University in Australia, Ilona Kickbusch, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, and Detlev Ganten, Founding President of the World Health Summit, offers up-to-date information and expertise across all aspects of global health and helps readers achieve a multidisciplinary understanding of topics and trends in global health. 

More on the Handbook of Global Health here

Global Young Academy 2020 Yearly Report is out

The Global Young Academy (GYA) 2020 Yearly Report is now available online. Stories in the report include the Women in Science working group fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, GYA becoming an affiliate member of the International Science Council, Global State of Young Scientists project now exploring Latin America and the Caribbean, and more.

Download the Global Young Academy 2020 Yearly Report here

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