Issue: 1 

Date: 16 May 2023 

News update on the Future of Global Health Initiatives process  

This month, The Telegraph, All Africa and Dagens Medisin published an opinion piece co-authored by Kenya’s  Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Health and Norway’s Minister for International Development. The Ministers called  for a fundamental rethink of the global health system to meet the challenges of the world post-Covid and set  out the need for the Future of Global Health Initiatives (FGHI) process to advance universal health coverage  (UHC). This month on Tuesday May 23, 8-9:30am CEST, the FGHI will also host a breakfast event at the World  Health Assembly, co-hosted with the University of Geneva. If you would like to attend this breakfast event please  register your interest here. You will find more background on the FGHI process in this newsletter and on the  website. 

The new research commissioned to support the FGHI process is now well underway. The research consortium has completed a rapid scoping review and is progressing stakeholder interviews, country case studies and virtual  consultations. A final consultation meeting will be held at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in mid-June.  

The research consortium will deliver its final research findings and technical recommendations to the FGHI Steering Group at the end of July. Webinars and consultations will follow during August and September to  present the findings and capture feedback from interested stakeholders. 

When the final research report has been delivered, the FGHI Steering Group will welcome written feedback from  stakeholders by mid-September. This feedback will inform phase 2 – the development of the Steering Group’s  recommendations designed to optimise GHI contributions to help countries advance progress on UHC.  

If you are interested in attending the summer webinars, and/or sharing feedback on the research report itself  please reach out to Secretariat@futureofghis.org. 

About the Future of Global Health Initiatives process 

The FGHI process brings together a group of global, regional and national health stakeholders – from governments and international and domestic-financing partners to civil society, health organisations, and academics – in a time-bound process  of consultation and research throughout 2023, to reflect on how global health initiatives (GHIs) can be optimised  to best support national health priorities and countries’ progress towards universal health coverage (UHC).

The process aims by the end of 2023 to provide specific recommendations for GHIs to better align, work with  other health funders and strengthen their support for national priorities, plans and budgets, and shape a  global health financing ecosystem that is fit for purpose through to 2030 and beyond, in line with the 2030  Agenda on Sustainable Development, mainly Goal 3 on good health and well-being. 

A note from the Co-Chairs on why the process was set up 

There is widespread recognition that countries should have ownership and control over their own health  agendas. There is also recognition that for low- and middle-income countries to effectively deliver on their health  agendas and strengthen health systems, external resources need to be fully aligned in support of national health  plans, with a pathway created for increased and sustainable domestic financing. 

Future of Global Health Initiatives Co 

Chairs Dr Mercy Mwangangi and Dr 

John-Arne Røttingen at the World  

Health Summit in Berlin, Oct 2022. 

There is common agreement that there is some way to go to achieving this. Getting there will require reappraisal  of, and greater alignment across, the global health ecosystem.  

Building greater alignment, particularly around health systems strengthening and a more sustainable global  health ecosystem, is even more urgent as the world faces increasing epidemiological and demographic changes  and global health inequities: from aging populations; to the growing burden of non-communicable diseases,  mental health, and continuing and emerging challenges from infectious diseases; and growing threats from  environmental degradation, climate change and new disease outbreaks. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us  that many of these challenges cannot be contained within individual borders and that our collective health is  dependent on the health systems in all countries. 

Now is the time, while the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic are still fresh, to take stock of how the global  health system can best meet the health challenges of today and of tomorrow.  

Over the last two decades GHIs have contributed to enormous progress in protecting lives and improving the  health of people globally and improving on the MDGs, including significant progress against individual diseases  like polio, malaria, and HIV/AIDS, improving mother and child survival, and increasing coverage of specific  interventions like vaccines. There is, however, increasing recognition of the need for greater attention to  overarching, system-level coordination and structure of GHIs and their interface with other actors to better align  investment behind Agenda 2030 and SDG3.  

The FGHI process presents an opportunity for the global community to reflect, through an evidence-based  process, on how the GHIs can be optimised, in the context of the wider global health architecture and global  health financing system. 

We want to ensure that the GHIs can do their work in the most effective, efficient, equitable, and resilient and  sustainable way, as they support countries to build capacities and strengthen the health system capabilities they  need to respond to health challenges and drive towards universal health coverage.  

As Co-Chairs of the FGHI Steering Group we warmly encourage feedback and input into this process from all  interested parties. Throughout this year there is ongoing opportunity to:  

a) feed into the research process (now-July) 

b) share feedback on the final research (July-mid-September) 

c) join consultations to inform the translation of the research into the Steering Group’s final  recommendations which will be published at the end of this year (September – December)  

If you would like to be find out more or be actively involved in this feedback process, please get in touch at  Secretariat@futureofghis.org.  

You can visit the newly launched FGHI website for more information on the FGHI process, details on who is  involved, and summaries of the Steering Group meetings.  

Dr Mercy Mwangangi, former Chief Administrative Secretary of the Kenyan Ministry of Health & Dr John Arne Røttingen, Ambassador for Global Health of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 

FGHI at recent events 

FGHI at recent events 

Future of Global Health Initiatives: The Future We Want to See panelists at the Africa Health Agenda  International Conference in Kigali, 6 March 2023.
Ghanaian Permanent Representative Emmanuel Kwame Antwi of Ghana, centre left, hosts an FGHI breakfast with African WHO Executive Board delegation members in Geneva on 2 February 2023.

Canadian Permanent Representative Leslie Norton, with Future of Global Health Initiatives Co-Chairs Mercy  Mwangangi and John-Arne Røttingen at an FGHI briefing hosted at the Canadian mission in Geneva on 1  February 2023. 

Upcoming events  

• 23 May, 8-9:30am CEST, World Health Assembly FGHI breakfast event, co-hosted with the University  of Geneva, Geneva – click here to register  

• 14 June hybrid consultation to inform the research study, Addis Ababa 

More information 

Want to know more? For more information please contact Secretariat@futureofghis.org.