World Health Summit ends with clear demands for collaboration and calls to action for policy makers
Berlin, October 25, 2021 – After three days with 377 speakers and 67 different sessions, the 13th World Health Summit ended this afternoon. The prevailing theme: Learnings from COVID-19 for the future.
Globally, around 6,000 participants from 120 nations took part in the international summit, with 1,100 attending on-site in Berlin. In addition, there were 130,000 views on the WHO’s Twitter account so far, where the four World Health Summit sessions with WHO Director-General Tedros were streamed live.
The opening ceremony on Sunday, October 24, was followed via livestream around the world and on-site in Berlin by a total of 3,000 participants. The livestream featured on the WHO’s Twitter account was viewed 64,000 times as of now.
One of the speakers on-site on the final day of the World Health Summit was the Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin. She stressed: “Health budgets are an investment that makes societies and economies stronger, more resilient and more equal. We need to rethink our policies, globally and locally. The question is how to make us collectively and as individual societies better prepared. How to become more resilient for future crises and threats.”
World Health Summit President Axel R. Pries called for more solidarity. In a global crisis, national egoisms must be overcome, he said: “We need global responses to global challenges.”
Learnings from COVID-19, clear statements on pandemic preparedness and response, vaccine equity and new international strategies are also the core themes of the World Health Summit’s final declaration, the M8 Alliance Declaration.
The central calls to action:
– Vaccine Equity
– Strengthen the global health architecture
– Support all countries to invest in primary health care
The M8 Alliance members identified the need for „a new multilateralism and a new social contract.”
The World Health Summit is one of the world’s most important strategic forums for global health and brings together leaders from politics, science, civil society, and the private sector, aiming to set the course for a healthier future. It was founded in 2009 to mark the 300th anniversary of Charité and is held under the patronage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. President of the World Health Summit is Axel R. Pries, Dean of Charité. International President 2021 is Charles Ibingira, Makerere University College of Health Sciences, Uganda.