Description
Alongside the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA79), the Graduate Institute Global Health Centre (GHC) and the United Nations Foundation (UNF) will co-host their annual open briefing, this year titled Can Global Health Make Progress Amid Rupture? Since 2015, this public event has opened the WHA week with a forward-looking exchange on the modalities and defining issues before the Assembly. Convening delegates, non-state actors, academics, media, and broader audiences, the briefing provides critical analysis of the political, financial, and public health dynamics shaping global health cooperation. The event will be held in a hybrid format—virtually and in person at the Ivan Pictet Auditorium at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
Guided by the vision of greater self-reliance for all countries, the global health architecture in 2026 is being realigned through evolving partnerships, funding models, and approaches to diplomacy. A proliferation of reform initiatives has generated both momentum and fragmentation. The 158th WHO Executive Board decision mandating the WHO Secretariat to design a joint process to reconcile and align the various global health reform efforts signals recognition by Member States that coherence is urgently needed. At the same time, global conflict, fiscal constraints, and shifting development priorities are reshaping the landscape for multilateral cooperation. As countries gather at WHA79, they will confront fundamental questions about how to ensure that the evolving ecosystem of actors, instruments, and norms delivers more equitable, effective, and accountable outcomes. Can Member States forge a shared pathway toward a more coherent and resilient system of global health governance, or will entrenched power dynamics and geopolitical upheaval prevent meaningful reform?
SPEAKERS
To be announced soon.
CO-HOSTED by
The Global Health Centre's International Geneva Global Health Platform and the United Nations Foundation.
