Miscellaneous scientific news/publications, Scientific conferences

On the second day of the World Health Summit 2023 the focus was on topics such as a healthier future for women and girls in the poorest countries of the world, pandemic prevention, 75 years of WHO, and gender equality in health research.

At the Global Financing Pledging Event, a high-level donor gathering, Svenja Schulze, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, said, "Women’s rights are human rights." Girls and women make up 50 per cent of the world’s population: “Only girls who are healthy and able to make decisions about their own bodies can grow up to become educated and self-sufficient women who enjoy the same rights, resources and representation as men.”

The Global Financing Facility Partnership aims to secure a healthier future for more than 250 million women, children and youth in the world's poorest countries.

The 75th anniversary of the World Health Organisation (WHO) was the topic of the keynote session in the morning. The health of billions of people is under threat from conflict, air pollution and the climate crisis, and aggressively-marketed products that harm health, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus WHO Director-General: “All these challenges show why the world needs a strong WHO now more than ever.” WHO faces its own challenges, Dr. Tedros added: “The world’s expectations of WHO have increased substantially but our resources have not.”

Pandemic preparedness was at the center of the morning session. “In pandemic prevention, we’re often ignoring livestock”, said Christian Drosten, Director of the Institute of Virology at Charité. It is known that respiratory pathogens were transmitted from wild animal hosts to humans through livestock: “We’re ignoring this in the policy making. We have to implement livestock surveillance.”

Joy Phumapi, Co-Chair of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, called for better funding: “Coming up with a platform for matching human and animal health. That needs a lot of resources, it’s not easy to do.”

Gender equality was the topic at the launch of the Equity 2030 Alliance, a new global partnership for equitable and women-focused research and innovation. “Women walk through a world that was not built for them,” said United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director Natalia Kanem. “Yet we can redesign the world. We can resolve this challenge if we unite and commit to equity by design, whether in tech, science or finance. The impact will last for generations to come.”

One of the focus topics on the third and final day of WHS 2023, Tuesday, October 17: Climate change and its impact on health. Speakers include (all times in CEST):
- María Neira, Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, World Health Organization (WHO) (9:00 AM, 11:00 AM)
- Zakia Khattabi, Minister of Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and Green Deal, Belgium (9:00 AM, 2:00 PM)
- Eckart von Hirschhausen, Physician, Science Journalist, Founder of Healthy Planet - Healthy People Foundation (9:00 AM)
- Diane Thomson, Senior Director Global Vaccines Public Affairs, Pfizer (9:00 AM)
- Garth Graham, Head, YouTube Health (11:00 AM)
- Catharina Boehme, Assistant Director-General External Relations and Governance, World Health Organization (WHO) (11:00 AM, 4:00 PM)
- Peter Sands, Executive Director, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (11:00 AM, 12:45 PM, 2:00 PM)
- Victor J. Dzau, President, National Academy of Medicine (NAM) (11:00 AM)
- Alan Dangour, Director of Climate and Health, Wellcome Trust (11:00 AM)
- Steffi Lemke, Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection, Germany (11:00 AM)
- Ngashi Ngongo, Chief of Staff, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) (12:45 PM, 2:00 PM)
- Amie Heap, Director Global Citizenship and Sustainability, Abbott (2:00 PM)
- Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, Minister of Health, Malawi (9:00 AM, 12:45 PM, 2:00 PM)
- Elhadj As Sy, Chair of the Board, Kofi Annan Foundation (2:00 PM)
More on speakers: https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/summit/speakers.html
Program details: https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/WHS2023

Please also note the following events on Tuesday, October 17, the closing day of the WHS 2023:

12:45 PM: Launch of the Community Health Delivery Partnership: Presentation of an initiative for food security and health care for children in need and their families.
More info:
https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/Session/WHS2023/PD-21a

4:00 PM: WHS 2023 Outlook Session - G7/G20 Measures to Enhance Global Health Equity and Security: Outlook Session
This session will include key findings from WHS 2023.
More on the Outlook Session: https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/Session/WHS2023/KEY-07

The entire World Health Summit 2023 is open to the press.
Information for media representatives as well as an overview of special press-relevant events is available in the press kit:
https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/media/presskit.html

All livestream links are available in the respective session in the online program and during WHS 2023 at https://www.worldhealthsummit.org. Video and audio material can be used upon request. Credit: World Health Summit

Recordings of all 60+ sessions:
https://www.youtube.com/worldhealthsummit

The World Health Summit is the world's leading international strategic forum on global health. The WHS 2023 is once again held under the patronage of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the French President Emmanuel Macron, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The World Health Summit strengthens collaboration and open dialogue guided by science, fosters global health as a key political issue and promotes the global health debate in the spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. President of the World Health Summit is Axel R. Pries, International President 2023 is Adnan Hyder, Senior Associate Dean for Research, Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, USA.

World Health Summit 2023
October 15-17
JW Marriott Hotel Berlin
Stauffenbergstraße 26
10785 Berlin, Germany & Digital
https://www.worldhealthsummit.org

#WHS2023
Twitter: @WorldHealthSmt
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Press contact
Alida Tiekötter
communications@worldhealthsummit.org