Insights from the World Health Summit Regional Meeting: A Call for Renewed Trust

The Junaid Family Foundation, along with the World Health Organization, and YouTube Health, was a proud sponsor of the World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2023 which occurred earlier this month on 13 April. The World Health Summit is a unique forum that brings together stakeholders representing politics, science, and the private sector to learn about and discuss critical global health issues. This year three pivotal meetings will take place, which have broad implications for the trajectory of global health involving the international Group of Seven (G7), the Group of Twenty (G20) and the United Nations. If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us but one lesson, it is that we are all connected. Developing and executing solutions that provide meaningful benefits for all takes good communication, collaboration, and understanding.

Trust is the fundamental bedrock from which good, sustainable solutions take hold. Yet, the erosion of trust between all stakeholders was one of the strongest (and most concerning) themes heard throughout the day at the regional meeting. The world is at a critical point in time. Daily we are bombarded with the tangible outcomes from health inequity, the decline of mental health, racism, sexism, climate change, social media, and technological advancements with the potential to go unchecked.

We are also a world full of brilliant and thoughtful minds. We can make fundamental progress by coming together, listening to others where alignment and dissent coexist, and collaborating through respectful forums. History has shown that we have succeeded before, and we can do so again. Renewed trust and respect, built through forums like this one, are realistic change agents for a strong future.

The World Health Summit has generously opened its doors for us all to hear the discussions. The agenda hosted discussions on the following topics: Sector and Commercial Determinants of Health: Rules of Engagement, Emerging Leaders in a Globalized World, Climate Change, Pandemics, and Social Determinants of Health, Global Health in a Political World, Gender and Power: Equity at Work, Racism in Global Health: Difficult Conversations, and more. Access to watch the sessions from the April meeting and prior ones, as well, are available to here.