- Annual German Forum takes centre-stage in Global Health Dialogue
Berlin, Germany, 22.10.2021
World Health Summit, the largest strategic gathering of international health professionals, leading politicians, academics, civil society organization, the private sector and journalists opens in Berlin, the capital of Germany.
The three-day health Summit (October 24-26), and the 13th in the series, serves as a meeting point for mandarins in the health sector to deliberate on challenges facing every aspect of healthcare worldwide.
The forum, at which delegates are expected from over 100 countries, would debate in 50 Sessions involving 300 speakers with a massive participation of close to 6,000 participants, making it one of the world’s leading strategic forums for global health. It would set the framework for a healthier world.
The goal of the forum as set out by the organizers include the following: to improve health across the world, bring together stakeholders from all sectors, facilitate constructive exchange in an environment of academic freedom, strengthen international cooperation, find answers to major health challenges and set health agendas.
An integral part of this year’s business calendar at the Summit include Vaccine Equity for all to a COVID-19 vaccine which has been a dominant political demand throughout the pandemic, the Role of the European Union in Global Health, WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, the Intersection of COVID-19 and Mental Health,
In her welcome message to the Summit, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is also one of the high patrons of the Summit, expressed the hope that the participants would use the opportunity to share new findings and to discuss what may be needed to efficiently prevent and fight pandemics on a global scale adding that the COVID-19 pandemic was not yet over.
Chancellor Merkel stressed the importance of making vaccines available to all those who needed them.
“Vaccines must be accessible to everyone around the world. This is the only way to end the pandemic. The Access to COVID‑19 Tools Accelerator—or ACT‑Accelerator— with its vaccine platform COVAX is the foremost global initiative working to make this happen. It is the result of a commitment by the G20 and has been supported by the German Government from the beginning. With a contribution of 2.2 billion euro, Germany is the second‑largest donor. We will only be able to achieve lasting success through multilateral action and international solidarity.”
For his part, President Emmanuel Macron of France, said in his message that the COVID-19 pandemic has once again shown the extent to which international solidarity was central to global health.
The World Health Summit is held under the High Patronage of Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).