Washington DC, 20 October 2022 (PAHO)- The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) participated in the World Health Summit 2022, an international forum for global health, jointly organized with the World Health Organization (WHO) for the first time, from 16-18 October. Held annually in Berlin, the event brings together stakeholders from politics, science, the private sector, and civil society worldwide to set the agenda for a healthier future by inspiring innovative solutions for better health and well-being for all.
The World Health Summit’s mission is to strengthen collaboration and open dialogue guided by science, foster global health as a key political issue, and promote the global health debate in the spirit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 17 “Partnership for the Goals.”
Marcos Espinal, PAHO Assistant Director, participated in the panel “How to Combine Health Systems Resilience with the Health Equity Agenda,” where speakers discussed the urgent need for global and national commitment for sustained progress towards universal access to health and universal health coverage, and the need for an integrated approach to building and rebuilding health systems that serve the needs of the population, before, during and after public health emergencies.
James Fitzgerald, PAHO Director of the Health Systems and Services Department, presented in the workshop “mRNA Technology Transfer Hub: Towards Sustainability,” which aimed to identify key issues that will need to be addressed and set the stage for collectively working on solutions to ensure the sustainability of vaccines produced through the network of the mRNA technology transfer hub program.
The World Health Summit 2022 included topics like climate change and health, pandemic preparedness, food security, digital transformation, sustainable health systems, investments in health and well-being, and the role of the G7 and G20 in global health. More than 400 speakers from all regions of the world and around 60,000 participants worldwide took part online via the World Health Summit and WHO channels.
The World Health Summit was founded in 2009 on the 300th anniversary of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. It is traditionally held under the patronage of the German Chancellor, the French President, the President of the European Commission, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization.
