Webinar - Global Health Governance Appeal: Building the Reset
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call and constitutes a global health event with wide ramifications. Old and new challenges have emerged and the awareness that we all live in an interconnected world has sharply increased. While the COVID-19 emergency measures are still ongoing, now is also the time to step up and face the future and health governance challenges, with enhanced vigor, through assembling our collective force and intelligence.
This is why a number of global networks have launched the Global Health Governance Appeal: Building the Reset, as an attempt to connect the many positive pieces of work which can serve as building blocks for the future. See here for a short summary of the appeal.
In this webinar, we introduced this global appeal and discussed with our panelists ant the audiance its collective aims and forms of engagement.
Summary:
On May 14, 2020, 65 people participated in an animated launch webinar of the Global Health Governance: Building the Reset campaign. Godelieve van Heteren (Health Systems Governance Collaborative) gave a quick overview of the key inspirations of the campaign and highlighted the main goals of building seven streams of health governance work. She indicated how the campaign aims to draw attention to solid health governance efforts and thinking around the world, and to help to connect the dots. She touched on some of the vital questions in the seven core streams of the campaign, i.e. (i) Planetary Health: the next frontier, (ii) Adaptive health system thinking, (iii), New multilateralism, new global health architecture, (iv) Moving common goods for health, (v) Equity, Agency and cultural awareness in health, (vi) Revitalize public health, (vii) Pathways of change. Three commentators opened up the discussion. Stefan Swartling Peterson (UNICEF) underscored the importance of looking much more broadly way at ‘health’ governance, re-examine what CoVID-19 has taught us about the real seats of effective governance, and where health governance should be situated in the new global order.
Sanghita Bhattacharrya (Public Health Foundation of India) focused her comments on how this CoVID-19 moment could be used by all in health to reboot ourselves, start working more in collaboratives and reverse knowledge and power structures, with governance built on much more south-south and south-north learning, with communities as pillars, with serious opening of access, and with real co-production. Sridhar Venkatapuram (King’s College London) discussed in more detail what fundamental challenges post-Covid-19 new governance thinking post-CoVID19 may be up against. He drew attention to the impact of decades of narrow focus on economic growth and economic efficiency in health systems. He touched on the social divisions that had been foregrounded once again by the current pandemic, and the threat of loss of social cohesion or decline of the same institutions which could make health systems more just and adaptive. He made a strong plea for genuine public health as ‘health of people, and for highlighting exciting work now ongoing about a fairer global order.
Participants engaged around issues of comparative, more embedded research, the thematic issues embedded in the streams, the ways to connect and move forward, the various potentials for larger mobilization. Several of the participants already offered their services to help grow the streams. A webinar series: Building the Reset: What, How, Now! will be started shortly, with one webinar for each stream; and participants offered their assistance to help bring these about.
Recording
If you missed it, find the full recording of the session below.
Agenda
This webinar was divided into the following four sections:
Introducing the Global Appeal: Godelieve van Heteren gave an overview of the appeal with a particular emphasis on the seven streams.
- Invited responses: Our panelists discussed their perspective on this appeal, and what they believe should be the goals and ambitions.
- Open Discussion: Participants came forward and shared reactions, insights, and experiences.
Our panelists
Stefan Swartling Peterson
Stefan Peterson is the Chief of Health Section for UNICEF globally, based in New York. He is a Professor of Global Health at Uppsala University and, prior to that, at the Global Health Division of Karolinska Institute. He has also been visiting professor at Makerere University in Uganda. As a health systems researcher and medical doctor, he has done extensive field work in Tanzania and Uganda, and has worked with different ministries of health, organizations such as WHO, and implemented projects supported by Sida, the Gates Foundation, and the European Union.
Sanghita Bhattacharyya
Sanghita Bhattacharyya, is Senior Public Health Specialist at Public Health Foundation of India
Lead Facilitator, Community Health –Community of Practice. She has two decades of experience in the areas of health system strengthening, maternal, and child health research. As part of the team in one of the leading think-tank in public health research and policy in India, she has worked to understand and link evidence-based research with policy and programs.
Sridhar Venkatapuram
Sridhar Venkatapuram is Associate Professor of Global Health & Philosophy at King’s College London, and Deputy Director of the King’s Global Health Institute. He has been at the forefront of global health ethics for over 25 years, starting with researching HIV/AIDS related human rights abuses in India for Human Rights Watch in the early 1990s. His expertise is in bringing together health sciences with philosophy to address concepts such as health equity, social justice, and human right to health. He has worked at a number of international health organizations including spending 2018-19 at the WHO, HQ- Global Health Ethics Unit.
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