World Health Day: creating shared spaces to generate collaborative action
The Nuffield Centre’s World Health Day organisers Dr Nichola Jones and Dr Francis Poitier reflect on the two-day event which brought policy and practice together to foster new collaborations
This year’s World Health Day theme ‘My Health, My Right’ encapsulates the fundamental right to health for everyone, everywhere.
This value underpins the work we do in the Nuffield Centre; addressing priority global health and development challenges to inform and improve population health and healthcare, including health policies, systems and practices.
To mark this year’s World Health Day, the Nuffield Centre held a two-part event; on 17th April 2024, we hosted a conference-style showcase followed by a collaborative workshop on 18th April 2024, focused on developing collaborations based on key priorities raised from the showcase.
Identifying emerging global health priorities
The showcase brought together global health policy experts from the World Health Organization and other world-leading institutions, national-level policymakers and practitioners from Low- and Middle-Income Countries, scholars and researchers interested in global health, and students from various disciplines including politics and medicine. The aim for this first day was to create a platform for researchers, policy makers and global health experts to share ideas, discuss challenges and tensions in global health and to identify commonalities.
Through talks, panel discussions and informal conversations, priority global health challenges which undermine the right to health emerged.
These priority issues included:
- Global connectedness
- Quality affordable healthcare
- Human resources, and
- Global health security
Contributors highlighted the need for global health actors to balance high-quality services with affordability at the point of service for populations. A lack of human resources, particularly in conflict areas, threatens progress made in obtaining Universal Health Coverage. Furthermore, global preparedness and health security rests in our collective ability to collaborate on multisectoral approaches which centre accessible, high-quality healthcare for everyone, everywhere, and in all conditions.
Developing effective collaborations to address global health priorities
The collaboration workshop on Day 2 was designed with an open format to promote collective discussions around global health priorities and how to develop effective and equitable collaborations. The workshop was directed by the natural flow of discussion, with topics ranging from goals, principles and hopes for future collaborations for each contributor.
Emerging from the workshop was the identification of values and commitments in order to develop and effective partnerships and collaborations.
The shared values include:
- Co-production and knowledge exchange
Ground up approaches which allow for co-production and knowledge exchange was seen as critical to address priority global health challenges that impact on the most vulnerable. - Multi-directional capacity building
A recognition that capacity building is multidirectional, with each partner learning from each other. - Community Engagement
Engagement with communities, alongside practitioners and policy makers is key to improving health of populations. Communities should be engaged in the development of health interventions and programmes. - Equity and gender
There is a need to unpack and address historical attitudes and practices which undermine gender and health equity. Understanding and responding to these inequities can bring us closer to the right to health for everyone, everywhere.
A need for action now
A recurring sentiment from those in discussion across both days is a sense of urgency, particularly when considering emergencies and conflict response. In order to generate meaningful action, we must create space for global health actors to meet, discuss priorities and identify areas of shared interest.
“Words alone are not enough; we need to get involved We need to move beyond advocacy to action.”
— Dr Ian Smith, Former Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the WHO
About the authors:
Drs Nichola Jones and Francis Poitier are teaching and research fellows at The Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development.
- The Nuffield Centre is a WHO Collaborating Centre on Research and Capacity Strengthening of Health Policy, Governance and Services. Learn more here.
