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10/15/2023 19:00

2023 - A Defining Year for Global Health Action

Alida Tiekötter Media & Communication
World Health Summit

World Health Summit officially kicks off in Berlin

Berlin, October 15, 2023

On Sunday evening, the World Health Summit was officially opened in Berlin. The main topic of the opening ceremony “A Defining Year for Global Health Action” - the theme of WHS 2023.

At the opening ceremony, German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach said: “The vital necessity for the global community to come together and unite in confronting our common global health challenges. Global health is a shared responsibility that can only be effectively addressed when we join forces and work together”.

EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides stated in her video speech: “In true Team Europe spirit, working closely with our member states, the new EU global health strategy is already on the road to implementation.” According to Kyriakides, the EU Commission is determined to “walk the talk.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who joined live digitally, stressed: “Humanity faces so many health challenges now, from war to the climate crisis; deepening poverty and growing hunger; rapidly depleting natural resources and natural disasters, and of course, global and regional disease outbreaks.”

Mia Mottley, Premierminister of Barbados, commented in her pre-recorded speech: “Ultimately, if we want to achieve better health outcomes for the world's poor, which includes just about half of the population, then we need to develop more effective financing mechanisms that help the Global South build up its public health systems and to create robust and responsive domestic infrastructure.”

World Health Summit President Axel R. Pries called for global cooperation: “The world wide global health community has a responsibility: “We have to strengthen the spirit of international cooperation working for life and humanism on earth.”

Additional speakers for the opening ceremony:

- Aurélien Rousseau, Minister for Solidarity and Health, France
- Keizo Takemi, Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan
- Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State of Health & Family Welfare, India
- Ina Czyborra, Berlin Senator for Higher Education and Research, Health and Long-Term Care, Germany
- Heyo Kroemer, CEO, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
- Rose Gana Fomban Leke, Director Biotechnology Centre, Cameroon & Virchow Prize for Global Health Laureate
- Omnia El Omrani, Youth Envoy to the President of the UN 27th Climate Change Conference (COP27), Egypt
- Sunao Manabe, Executive Chairperson and CEO, Daiichi Sankyo, Japan
- Bernd Montag, CEO, Siemens Healthineers, Germany
- Christina Chilimba, Founder and Executive Director, All for Youth, Malawi

More on the opening ceremony: https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/Session/WHS2023/KEY-01

The 2023 WHS focuses on topics such as climate change and health, pandemic prevention, digital technologies, the role of the G7 and G20 in global health, 75 years of WHO. Expected are well over 300 speakers from all regions of the world: Government officials including around 20 international ministers, representatives from academia, industry, civil society and international organizations, and several thousand participants on site and online.

To enable interested people from all over the world who are unable to travel to the event to participate, the entire program is available online.

Speakers on the second day of WHS 2023 include (all times indicated in CEST):
-Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO) (9:00, 14:00)
- Karl Lauterbach, Federal Minister of Health, Germany (9:00, 18:00)
- Christian Drosten, Director, Institute of Virology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (11:00)
- Joy Pumaphi, Co-Chair, Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) (11:00, 16:00)
- Inger Ashing, CEO, Save the Children International (14:00)
- Christopher Elias, President of the Global Development Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (11:00, 14:00)
- Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) (12:45, 14:00)
- Wilhelmina S. Jallah, Minister of Health, Liberia (14:00)
- Catherine Russel, Executive Director, United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) (14:00, 16:00)
- Svenja Schulze, Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (14:00, 16:00)
- Heyo Kroemer, CEO, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (9:00)
- Lariba Zuweira Abudu, Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ghana (12:45)
- Ayoade Alakija, World Health Summit Ambassador & WHO Special Envoy for the ACT-Accelerator (14:00)
- Frederik Kristensen, Deputy CEO, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) (16:00)
- Ilona Kickbusch, Founding Director, Global Health Center, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (9:00, 12:45)

More speakers: https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/summit/speakers.html
Program details: https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/WHS2023

Please also note the following events on Monday, October 16:
12:45 PM CEST: Launch of the Equity 2030 Alliance: Global Partnership on Equitable and Women-Centric Research and Innovation
More info:
https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/Session/WHS2023/PD-13a

2:00 PM CEST: Global Financing Facility (GFF) Pledging Event: Deliver the Future: Catalyzing Opportunities for Women, Children, and Adolescents
More info:
https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/Program/Session/WHS2023/KEY-04

The entire World Health Summit 2023 is open to the press.
Information for media representatives as well as an overview of special press-relevant events is available in the press kit:
https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/media/presskit.html

All livestream links are available in the respective session in the online program and during WHS 2023 at https://www.worldhealthsummit.org. Video and audio material can be used upon request. Credit: World Health Summit
Recordings of all 60+ sessions:
https://www.youtube.com/worldhealthsummit

The World Health Summit is the world's leading international strategic forum on global health. The WHS 2023 is once again held under the patronage of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the French President Emmanuel Macron, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The World Health Summit strengthens collaboration and open dialogue guided by science, fosters global health as a key political issue and promotes the global health debate in the spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. President of the World Health Summit is Axel R. Pries, International President 2023 is Adnan Hyder, Senior Associate Dean for Research, Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, USA.

World Health Summit 2023
October 15-17
JW Marriott Hotel Berlin
Stauffenbergstraße 26
10785 Berlin, Germany & Digital
https://www.worldhealthsummit.org
#WHS2023
Twitter: @WorldHealthSmt
LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram: @worldhealthsummit
Press contact
Alida Tiekötter
communications@worldhealthsummit.org

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Criteria of this press release:
Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Economics / business administration, Medicine, Nutrition / healthcare / nursing, Politics, Social studies
transregional, national
Miscellaneous scientific news/publications, Scientific conferences
English

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