The Swedish Presidency of the European Union convened a meeting of high level European global health stakeholders in Stockholm on Friday, 4 December 2009. The meeting was co-organised by the Karolinska Institutet and Global Health Europe. The seminar came at a crucial moment for European engagement in global health; its objective being to give feedback into the European Commission’s present work toward a new EU policy on Global Health.
80 participants from the EU and abroad gathered to raise questions and express opinions on global health and the added value the EU can bring as a more coherent actor within this field. Participants included heads of international affairs from EU Member State Ministries of Health, their counterparts in ministries of Foriegn Affairs as well as Development Agencies, and directors of European national institutes of health. The meeting was also attended by experts from civil society including think tanks, NGOs and universities. Voices from beyond Europe were also expressed with a key note speech from Dr. Carlos M. Morel Director of the Center for Technological Development for Health at FIOCRUZ, Brazil; along with panel contributions from Professor Nelson Sewankambo, Principle of the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda. Please view the event programme (PDF) for a full list of speakers and panellists.
Key messages from the day touched on the need to acknowledge and tune policies for the new multipolar world order of the 21st century. The challenges facing global health as a new and frequently misinterpreted policy field were drawn out in discussions. Finally speakers and participants were able to give open feedback to the European Commission on it’s work toward a policy on the EU Role in Global Health. Of the recommendations some key messages to the Commission were to broaden the scope of health research in the EU beyond the bio medical to support public health through focus on implementation studies rather than new technologies and the support of research in the social sciences for a better understanding of the interconnections of health and other policies as well as the social and political determinants of health.
A full event report will follow in the coming weeks, along with speaker presentations, photographs and audio clips. Please check back here for updates.
EVENT REPORT (PDF)
SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS
Global Health Innovation: What role for emerging and developed economies? Carlos M. Morel – Director, Center for Technological Development for Health, FIOCRUZ, Brazil (Coming Soon)
The EU Role in Global Health? (PDF) Canice Nolan, Team Leader-Senior Coordinator for Global Health, European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumers.
Global Health and Europe, and the Rationale for Global Health Europe (PDF) Ilona Kickbusch, Director, Global Health Programme, The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva; Chair, Global Health Europe Task Force
Elisabet Lindgren, Division of Global Health/ IHCAR, Karolinska Institutet
Global Health…Global Opportunity (PDF) Rosa Elcarte, Director for Sectorial and Multilateral Cooperation, Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID)
Antibiotic Resistance: A faceless threat to global public health (PDF)
Otto Cars, Professsor,Infectious Diseases, Uppsala University; Chair, Strama; Director,ReAct-Action on Antibiotic Resistance (Coming Soon)
The Role of the Medical University in Global Health (PDF)
Harriet Wallberg-Henriksson, President of Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm