Swiss Federal Councillor Alain Berset delivered a lecture on “Switzerland's Commitment to Global Health” during the "5th Global Health Diplomacy Executive Training Course", organised by the Graduate Institute’s Global Health Programme on Thursday 15 August in Beijing. The head of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs (DHA) was in China to meet Ms Li Bin, Minister of Health, as well as representatives of various areas of health, culture and society. Mr Berset also spoke at the opening of the Chinese Health Forum on 17 August in Beijing.

During his lecture, Mr Berset highlighted Switzerland’s special interest and expertise in the area of global health. He cited several examples including the country’s hosting of the World Health Organization’s headquarters, Switzerland’s commitment to sound global health policy and others.

Mr Berset was accompanied by two state councillors: Mr Carlo Conti, Head of the Department of Health of the Canton of Basel-City and President of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Directors of Public Health and Mr Pierre-François Unger, Head of the Department of Economy and Health of the Canton of Geneva as well as representatives of the Swiss Medtech industry. After his presentation he led a discussion with faculty on the Swiss Health 2020 policy proposal and how Switzerland will cooperate with China on global health.

The Global Health Programme organised the course with the Department of Global Health, Beijing University, and with the assistance of the Health Human Resources Development Centre of the Chinese Ministry of Health. This annual five day event is designed to introduce health and foreign affairs professionals to key issues and challenges in global health, to build capacity and promote their role and participation in global health negotiations.

This year’s course fits into the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of Africa-China Health Cooperation and the organisation of the Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Development. The training event has brought together 20 participants from health and foreign affairs departments in China and, for the first time, 10 participants from African countries.

The course is co-directed by Professor Ilona Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Programme, Professor Liu Peilong and Professor Guo Yan, from the Department of Global Health, Peking University. Among the speakers and lecturers were numerous accomplished scholars and practitioners.

The Global Health Programme (GHP) is a research centre and think-tank focusing on health as a global governance challenge.

• Read an article from Swiss media on Alain Berset's visit to China