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World Health Summit
International conference From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The World Health Summit (WHS) is an international strategic forum for global health that convenes stakeholders from science, business, politics, and civil society to discuss key challenges in global healthcare.
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Its core is the annual international conference, which has been taking place in Berlin every October since 2009 and since has become one of the world's leading global health conferences. Each year, it attracts more than 3,000 participants on site and over 21,000 online. The next World Health Summit will take place from 12 to 14 October 2025 in Berlin under the theme “Taking Responsibility for Health in a Fragmenting World.”[1]
From the onset, the World Health Summit has been under the patronage of the German Chancellor and the French President. Since 2019, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) has also served as a patron of the World Health Summit.[2][3] The World Health Summit cooperates with international organizations such as the WHO, as well as governmental and non-governmental actors.
In addition to the conference in Berlin, the World Health Summit features annual WHS Regional Meetings held in different parts of the world as well as activities throughout the year such as the WHS Global Health Dialogues, which aim to foster exchange among decision-makers and thought leaders in smaller settings.[4]
The World Health Summit’s academic basis is the WHS Academic Alliance, a network of academic health centers, universities and national academies that organizes the WHS Regional Meetings and international initiatives in the global health sector.[5]
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Mission and topics
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According to its current mission statement, the World Health Summit aims to improve global health through open dialogue and collaboration among stakeholders from all sectors of society.[6] The WHS brings together international experts from science, politics, business, and civil society to jointly address pressing challenges in healthcare considering relevant aspects ranging from research and innovation to implementation and financing. Its approach is based on scientific evidence and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs). A central goal is to advance global health as a political priority.[7]
Recurring topics include climate change and health, pandemic preparedness and prevention, antimicrobial resistance, non-communicable diseases and mental health, global health financing, and the promotion of health for women, children, and marginalized groups. An overarching leitmotif and key topics are defined in advance of each annual conference. Under the theme “Building Trust for a Healthier World”, the 2024 WHS focused, among other topics, on antimicrobial resistance, the role of artificial intelligence in digital healthcare, and young leadership.[8]
Over the course of the years, the tangible results of the World Health Summit included numerous joint declarations, successful launches of global health initiatives and major funding commitments to projects and programs tackling pressing global health issues.[9] (See also: → Impact)
To enhance accessibility and foster global participation, the WHS is organized in a hybrid format, offering in-person attendance in Berlin alongside free online access worldwide.[10] In 2025 the World Health Summit offers scholarships to support participation from low- and middle-income countries.[10]
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History
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The founders recognized that whilst similar gatherings of leaders were well established in fields such as economic development and technology, a global forum did not exist for medical practice, research and health care systems.[citation needed]
The initiative for the summit came from Detlev Ganten, former CEO of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, with the aim of bringing together political decision-makers, with scientists and healthcare experts to jointly develop strategies for sustainable healthcare on a scientific and medical background.[11] The first conference took place in October 2009 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin under the theme “The Evolution of Medicine” and attracted approximately 700 participants to Berlin.[12]
The summit was established under the patronage of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.[13] The patronage by the German Chancellor was continued by Olaf Scholz as well as that of the French President by Francois Hollande,[14] and by Emmanuel Macron.[15] They were joined in 2013 by José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. Jean-Claude Juncker and Ursula von der Leyen continued this patronage until 2021.[16] Since 2019, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom joined as patron.[17]
In 2022, the World Health Summit was co-hosted with the World Health Organization (WHO), bringing together a wide range of high-level global health stakeholders. Key topics included “Climate Change and Health”, “Pandemic Preparedness”, “Food Security”, “Digital Transformation”, “Sustainable Health Systems”, and “The Role of Germany, the G7 and G20 in Global Health.” The event featured 60 sessions with 400 speakers and attracted 4,000 participants on site and 60,000 online from 140 nations.[18][19]
Impact
The World Health Summit has been the platform for a number of major global health initiatives and funding commitments to international organizations and programs.[9] In 2024, a WHO Investment Round event at the World Health Summit secured $700 million for global health, with an additional $300 million pledged in advance by the European Union and the African Union. These funds are intended to help prevent 40 million avoidable deaths within four years.[20] In 2023, a donor event for the Global Financing Facility raised $250 million to support the “Deliver the Future” campaign, which aims to provide essential healthcare to women, children, and adolescents in hard-to-reach communities.[21] In 2022, $2.6 billion were pledged towards the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.[22]
List of all World Health Summits
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International network and activities
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The World Health Summit understands itself as an international strategic platform for global health. It holds close ties with international initiatives and organizations, facilitating year-round cooperation in projects and exchange programs over various world regions.[23]
WHS Academic Alliance
The WHS Academic Alliance (formerly M8 Alliance) is an academic network of institutions of education and research, including national academies. It was officially inaugurated in 2009 on occasion of the first World Health Summit.[5]
The WHS Academic Alliance consists of around 30 member institutions worldwide (as of June 2025), including the InterAcademy Partnership, which represents national academies of medicine and sciences in over 100 countries.[24] According to the WHS Academic Alliance goals, the network seeks to improve global health and works with political and economic decision-makers and civil society to develop science-based solutions for health challenges worldwide. It was established as a permanent platform for framing future considerations of global medical developments and health challenges.[5]
A key role of the WHS Academic Alliance is to contribute to each World Health Summit by participating in the definition of topics, and the development of the program and organizing the WHS Regional Meetings. The International Presidency of the World Health Summit rotates annually among its members.[5] The Alliance also publishes joint declarations and organizes events such as expert meetings in different regions of the world. The secretariat of the WHS Academic Alliance is hosted by the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany.[25]
Members of the WHS Academic Alliance (as of June 2025)
- Africa Academy for Public Health, Tanzania
- Aga Khan University, Pakistan and East Africa
- American University of Beirut, Libanon
- Ashoka University, India
- Association of Academic Health Centers International (AAHCI)
- Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
- Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, China
- Coimbra Health, University of Coimbra, Portugal
- Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH)
- Global Network for Academic Public Health (GNAPH)
- Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal, Canada
- InterAcademy Partnership (IAP)
- Istanbul University, Turkey
- Karolinska Institute, Sweden
- Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), China
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
- Makerere University, Uganda
- Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), India
- Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, USA
- Monash University, Australia
- National Taiwan University, Taiwan
- National University of Singapore (Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine)
- NIMS University, India
- Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
- Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health, ENSP, Brazil
- Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran
- Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
- Université Paris Cité, France
- University of Montreal, Canada
WHS Regional Meetings
Each year in addition to the main conference in Berlin, a member of the WHS Academic Alliance hosts the WHS Regional Meeting. Convened in the countries of the respective member, these meetings focus on regional topics and challenges related to global and public health and complement the discussions of the main summit.
The WHS Regional Meetings are organized by the institution that holds the rotating presidency of the WHS Academic Alliance in the respective year. They evolved from the international planning meetings traditionally held in April with the alliance members.[27]
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Leadership
Since 2021, Axel Radlach Pries, former dean of Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin is serving as World Health Summit President. The World Health Summit was founded by Detlev Ganten, a career medical research scientist and Chairman of the Board of the Charité Foundation, who held his role as World Health Summit President from 2009 to 2020.
In addition to Axel Pries' role as President, each year the International Presidency rotates amongst the members of the WHS Academic Alliance. The alliance is a key contributor to the World Health Summit's themes and programs.[28][29]
The International Co-President of the World Health Summit 2025 from 12 to 14 October in Berlin is Balvir S. Tomar from NIMS University in India.[30]
The WHS Foundaction GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, is responsible for the organization and administration of the World Health Summit.[23] Since 2023, Carsten Schicker serves as CEO of the WHS Foundation GmbH.[31]
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Criticism and reactions
The World Health Summit has been criticized by Thomas Gebauer, Director of Medico International, as an "elitist club of decision makers",[32] that ignores both the social factor of global health issues and the notion of health as a human right, but rather serves particular interests. Thus, in 2009, this Frankfurt-based organization initiated an alternative conference as a form of protest against the World Health Summit.[33]
In subsequent years, the World Health Summit has provided information on the composition of its funding. According to the organization, approximately 40% of its budget is covered by public funding, 40% by private sector contributions, and 20% by academic institutions, private foundations, and participant fees. No single private partner contributes more than 4% of the total budget.[34]
The World Health Summit has also introduced measures to facilitate participation from low- and middle-income countries. These include free livestreams of sessions, a scholarship program to support participation, and an increased focus on topics relevant to global health equity and the Global South.[35]
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References
External links
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