Publications

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the vision and architecture of Global Health have dramatically evolved, particularly in relation to the EU 2010 Global Health Communication. Against this backdrop, the European Commission launched a public consultation to feed into its new EU Global Health Strategy.  As an organisation striving for better health in Europe, EPHA worked with its members and contributed to the public consultation. To make the most out of the new strategy (in terms of improving people’s health), we identified the following priorities:

1. Address health inequities and underlying causes with support for vulnerable groups;
2. Address lobbying, marketing, and promotion of products detrimental to health to ensure private activities do not undermine global health priorities;
3. Advance universal health coverage by bringing coherence to international agreements, removing laws restricting access (e.g., to undocumented persons), and investing in effective global mechanisms (e.g., Global Fund);
4. Promote healthy and sustainable food, environments, and agricultural and fisheries policies based on ‘One Health’;
5. Ensure sustainable food and nutrition security and invest in NCDs prevention while integrating community-based services and funding CSOs to reach and increase mental health literacy for everyone;
6. Address climate change and environmental quality (air, water, soil) and ensure the sustainability and Green Deal impacts;
7. Address challenges of the health workforce, workforce migration & brain drain. 

 How to implement this ambitious agenda? In our contribution, we highlighted the following aspects:

• The EU should take a leading role in global responsibility and enforce the commitments taken at the global level. 
• The EU should contribute to strengthening a multilateral approach, including by making the WHO and global health initiatives more efficient, with effective governance and adequate financing, and ensuring capacity for implementation. 
• The strategy should improve stakeholders’ engagement for implementation. This will entail effective channels for dialogue, enabling funding for civil society organizations (CSOs), and setting up a dedicated online space for stakeholders’ involvement, among other things. 

See also the contributions put forward by the EPHA-hosted networks:

• European Alliance for Responsible R&D and Affordable Medicines’ contribution
• EU4Health Civil Society Alliance’s contribution