The World Health Summit is a unique international strategic forum for global health. Held annually in Berlin, it brings together stakeholders from politics, science, the private sector, and civil society from around the world to set the agenda for a healthier future by inspiring innovative solutions for better health and well-being for all.
The Youth Cafe is excited to be part of the World Health Summit 2023 since health and well-being are among the main programmatic areas of focus. The World Health Summit 2023 under the theme "A Defining Year for Global Health Action" takes place from October 15-17 in Berlin, Germany, and online.
On-site participation: Experience the World Health Summit program live and in person and participate in the most important discussions on all Global Health topics. Enjoy networking with international participants from science, politics, industry, and civil society at the lunch & coffee breaks and social evening events.
Digital participation: Follow the entire World Health Summit program via livestream without prior registration. All sessions will be live-streamed on the World Health Summit YouTube channel.
Confirmed speakers for the World Health Summit 2023 include:
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus-Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)
Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar- Minister of Health and Population, Egypt
Omar Abdi- Deputy Executive Director, UNICEF
Firass Abiad- Minister of Public Health, Lebanon
Lariba Zuweira Abudu- Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ghana
Ahmed Al-Mandhari-Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, World Health Organization (WHO)
Ayoade Alakija- Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator), World Health Organization (WHO)
Kevin Ali- CEO, Organon, United States of America
Pascale Allotey- Director, Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research SRH, World Health Organization (WHO)
Among others;
KEY TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED INCLUDE:
Learning from COVID-19 for Future Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response
We are witnessing a fundamental shift in global health priorities and approaches. COVID-19 has drastically shown the deadly and costly impact of pandemics and put a spotlight on the extreme inequalities in access to tests, treatments, and vaccines across the globe. We now need to gather the lessons learned to be better prepared politically, technically, and financially to address the existential threat posed by future potential pandemics.
The outcomes of the UN High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (Pandemic PPR) in September 2023 as well as key deliberations of the G7 and G20 will be a leading guide on the next steps to advance action. The negotiation for a pandemic accord – focused on equity and access – as well as the revisions of the International Health Regulations will be critical steps in this process. Significant investment and new types of financing are required.
To combat future existential risks, the Pandemic PPR agenda must be taken beyond the health sector and make resilience a priority at the government and societal level, with broad stakeholder involvement and a focus on communities. Financing must be secure, the ownership of the Pandemic PPR agenda needs to be truly inclusive, and accountability needs to be assured.
Recommitting to Universal Health Coverage
The landscape of global health has witnessed notable setbacks against years of global progress.
This has largely been attributed to a ‘perfect storm’ of compounding and often intersecting global challenges: the growing numbers and length of conflicts, the severity and far-reaching impacts of climate change, and the current and growing risks of pandemics. Health systems all around the world have been subject to enormous strain and the world is facing a health workforce crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic further disrupted essential services in most countries.
To best integrate social, economic, and health outcomes, the World Health Organization’s recommendation is to reorient health systems to Primary Health Care (PHC). Most essential Universal Health Coverage (UHC) interventions can be delivered through PHC and 75% of projected health gains from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) could be achieved through PHC which ensures quality and is accessible and affordable. Digital solutions can contribute significantly to this agenda. At the community level, the outreach to other sectors can support a focus on addressing inequities in health and the outreach to the most vulnerable populations.
The World Health Summit will build on the conclusions of the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC and explore how to achieve new political commitment and sustainable investment in UHC, especially at the community level.
Sustainable Health for People and Planet
The devastating consequences of climate change, ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, and pollution have never been more severe for health than today. Heat, epidemics, food insecurity, water scarcity, and natural disasters that are increasing in intensity, frequency, and duration are major challenges that threaten health and well-being at a global scale, while health systems around the world remain unprepared. To move forward, different UN agencies and cross-sectoral stakeholders have to jointly address ongoing and emerging crosscutting issues, taking into account the interactions between climate change, biodiversity loss, and health at all stages of the negotiation process.
Despite its potential, a health-focused framing in current climate discussions is not yet sufficiently applied. For the first time, a health day at the COP28 will pave the way to focus on the health-climate interface and a set of solutions that need to be addressed, which will reshape the governance and the economics of global climate and health policy while putting a focus on an equity-based approach. This means proactively including Planetary Health and One Health approaches in international collaborative mitigation and adaptation strategies and creating a common narrative and vision. The next steps will have to include the construction of climate-resilient and sustainable low-carbon health systems that consider the health sector as a guide in shaping an effective response to environmental health challenges.
G7/G20 Measures to Enhance Global Health Equity and Security
A high degree of cooperation and a joint commitment of governments within the framework of international forums such as the G7/G20 is required to tackle the strongly intertwined social, economic, and environmental issues that contribute to global health. It is essential to align the commitments of these critical political actors with those of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Agreement. Health has become a regular part of the G7/G20 discussions and recommendations.
Both G7 and G20 have addressed the challenges emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, have institutionalized cooperation between health and financial sectors, and initiated the new Pandemic Fund. Recently they have begun to increase their outreach to Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) to ensure the voices of particularly affected countries and regions are included. Equity must be a central pillar of the discussions as countries are unequally affected by crises, with the most vulnerable countries, regions, and groups hit hardest.
The increasing health activities of the G7 and G20 merit a reflection on their most recent actions and recommendations, especially in view of the significant investment requirements in social development, Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (Pandemic PPR).
Harnessing the Power of Digital Technologies for Global Health
The digital transformation is reshaping health and health care. Digital technologies already play a significant role in supporting individuals, health professionals, and health systems in a wide variety of ways. Examples are raising health literacy to empower people and communities with the information they need to act on their health; developing technology solutions to enable care teams to deliver more connected care; exploring the use of artificial intelligence to assist in diagnostics, medical research, and supporting preventive medical solutions. The potential to harness the power of data and digital technologies to improve global health outcomes is only at the beginning.
Yet, the world continues to face a significant digital divide and many of the digital tools for health are not accessible to vulnerable populations. Dis- and misinformation continue to be a significant challenge – as experienced during the pandemic; the impact of algorithms and the protection of health data are important human rights challenges. The speed with which new technologies are available raises urgent questions of governance and regulation at the national and international levels and about the forms of cooperation between private digital platforms and public actors.
World Health Organization’s 75th Anniversary
At this year’s World Health Summit, we will have the opportunity to take a journey through time in the world of the World Health Organization (WHO) together. They will have a closer look into the factors behind the success stories and the critical junctions of WHO in the past, while exploring the current and future challenges as well as expectations, and will imagine a future, in which people can live healthy, productive lives, regardless of who they are or where they live.
In the 75-year history of the WHO, the Organization has made important progress in improving health for all worldwide. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before the health-related goals of the 2030 Agenda are achieved. On this challenging journey in times of multiple crises and geopolitical divides, WHO has developed new partnerships and cooperation with a wide range of sectors.
Collaboration is at the heart of the engagement of the WHO. Partnerships with member states, international and regional organizations, parliamentarians as well and non-state actors are essential for WHO to effectively deliver on the WHO’s Triple Billion Targets. Initiated by Ghana, Norway, and Germany in 2019, the SDG3 Global Action Plan is a platform for improving collaboration among the biggest players in global health.
Innovations to Accelerate the Fight Against Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is once again the world’s leading infectious disease killer, and 2023 is a critical year in the fight to end this preventable and curable disease. Following the second United Nations High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB in September 2023, the global TB community will look ahead to its next steps in the journey to ending TB. The way forward in actioning and responding to the political comments at the HLM will require multi-sectoral dialogue and collaboration.
Disruptions to health systems and diversion of resources caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have also worsened the outlook, resulting in an increase in TB deaths and disease for the first time in a decade. Furthermore, growing drug resistance continues to compound the challenge of TB.
Global Financing Facility Resource Mobilization Event
With the support of representatives from Germany, the Netherlands, and Côte d'Ivoire, the 2023 Global Financing Facility (GFF) Resource Mobilization Campaign will have a pledging event at the World Health Summit in Berlin on October 16, 2023.
The event will showcase accelerated efforts and commitments from global and country partners on advancing the rights and opportunities of women, children, and young people. It will further discuss how new models of co-investments and partnerships can help address the scale of development challenges affecting women, girls, and adolescents and address the root causes of inequality.