Newsletter 07/2021: Kampala Declaration on Vaccine Equity

Dear friends,

The World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Uganda was the first World Health Summit in Africa - despite the difficult circumstances of rising COVID-19 cases in the country. 

I would like to thank all the organizers of the meeting, M8 Alliance member Makerere University, World Health Summit International President 2021 Charles Ibingira and especially the wonderful team on site for their hard work. 

The World Health Summit Regional Meeting on the African continent welcomed many high-level participants, mainly digitally and a few in Kampala to discuss the most pressing global health issues, with a focus to African  and first and foremost, the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine equity. 

After three days of highly important discussions the meeting ended with clear demands and a powerful message of international collaboration: The Kampala Declaration on COVID-19 Vaccine Equity was signed by the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, together with the President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, several ministers from Africa, the M8 Alliance and the World Health Summit. 

A total of 15 signatories of the declaration urge political leaders, international agencies and organizations, the civil society and industry, to strive for more equity in COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution. 
The declaration states that vaccine injustice is an existential challenge for global health today and the signatories strongly advocate strategic partnership and effective cooperation at the regional, national, and global level for distributed production and access to vaccines according to medical need.

Dear friends, one thing is crystal clear: It is against international solidarity to secure and use most available vaccine doses on a national level. Besides the humanitarian aspect, it is also very unwise from an epidemiological perspective and harms the geopolitical role of democratic states. Vaccine injustice not only divides the world between those that have access to vaccines and those who do not, it also increases the risk for the development of more aggressive virus mutations and jet another pandemic wave. 

We must act in solidarity and really make COVID-19 vaccines a global public good.

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

With kind regards,
 

The World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Uganda from June 27–30 was organized by Makerere University in Kampala and was one of the most important events of its kind in Africa: It brought together experts from around the world and especially many African countries to discuss the core issue COVID-19 and many other topics of great importance for global health and for health in Africa in particular. After three days of of fruitful speeches and discussions it ended with clear demands and a powerful message of international collaboration beyond political and geographical borders: The Kampala Declaration on COVID-19 Vaccine Equity.

“Vaccine injustice is an existential challenge for global health today”: The Kampala Declaration on COVID-19 Vaccine Equity

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, together with the President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, several ministers from Africa, the M8 Alliance and the President of the World Health Summit, Axel R. Pries signed the Kampala Declaration on COVID-19 Vaccine Equity.
The 15 signatories of the declaration urge political leaders, international agencies and organizations, the civil society and industry, to strive for more equity in COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution.

Read the Kampala Declaration here
Read the press release here

The Kampala Declaration on Twitter:
By @worldhealthsmt 
By @WHO

The Regional Meeting and the Kampala Declaration in the Media 

The World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Uganda received significant attention in the media with more than 50 reports. 

Find a selection of media mentions here

The Regional Meeting in Numbers

- 40 sessions
- over 60 hours of live-broadcasting time
- over 2.300 participants
- participants from 75 countries

Session Recordings

The recordings of all World Health Summit Regional Meeting sessions are available on the World Health Summit Africa Regional Meeting YouTube channel.

Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Makerere University College of Health Sciences agree on collaboration

The Vice Chancellor of Makerere University in Kampala Barnabas Nawangwe and the Dean of Charité Universitätsmedizin - Berlin Axel R. Pries signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the World Health Summit Regional Meeting. The MoU aims to promote academic collaboration in research and study between the two institutions.

Get all information on the World Health Summit 2021 on our website

See speakers here

See the program here

M8 Alliance Webinar Series on Migrant and Refugee Health

The next M8 Alliance Expert Meeting Webinar on "The Need for Integration of Migration Health Aspects in the Education of Health Professionals" organized by Sapienza University of Rome and UNICA will take place on September 7.

Find all information on program and speakers 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

World Health Summit Council member Sir Andrew Haines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, member of the M8 Alliance, launched a new book together with co-author Howard Frumkin of the University of Washington: Planetary Health: Safeguarding Human Health and the Environment in the Anthropocene. The authors discuss the environmental changes that threaten to undermine progress in human health, and explain how these changes affect health outcomes.

The OSH Forum, managed by World Health Summit partner One Sustainable Health Foundation, launched seven International Working Groups, aiming to translate the One Health concept into integrated operational programs. The groups will work on issues related to human, animal, and environmental health with a systemic and holistic approach aligned with the 2030 SDGs.

Watch the operational launch here or visit www.onesustainablehealth.org

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.

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Berlin, Germany & Digital

October 24-26, 2021