Takeaways from the World Health Summit 2025
Project HOPE’s Jed Meline attended the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany. Here are his insights and takeaways from the three-day summit.
The World Health Summit 2025 was held in Berlin, Germany from October 12-14. The theme this year was “Taking Responsibility for Health in a Fragmenting World” and the discussions focused on bringing stakeholders across numerous sectors to discuss global health.
Project HOPE’s Vice President of Policy & Advocacy, Jed Meline attended the summit and had a few takeaways from the 85+ sessions that occurred.
Innovation
The global health community is forging forward with new ideas despite — or because of — the worst outlook for global health in a generation. The grit and determination from CEOs on down was inspiring.
Health Funding
Debt for Health, discussed for decades, may actually begin to happen. The next battle on that front takes place in Washington at the World Bank meetings later this week where hopefully some tangible progress will be made.
Data for Action
The new data for funding and health outcomes is as bad as we thought, though the work of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation‘s new Global Burden of Disease Study is outstanding and better than ever. And thank goodness, as every advocate and policy wonk is going to need good info more than ever.
Medical Supply Chain
The private sector, especially pharma and financing, are bulwarks. Not only are they not backing away despite governments’ weak spine, they are stepping up. Kudos to Bayer, Bayer Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and many others.
Domestic Health Leadership
LMIC Ministers of Health are saying the right things about taking the health funding challenge head on. It remains to be seen what actions they can or will actually undertake however, especially given the debt headwinds they face.
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