Policy Updates

On December 17, 2024, the WHO Academy in Lyon officially opened, marking a significant step in strengthening the skills and competencies of health professionals to achieve UHC and improve global access to quality healthcare services

The Academy will provide healthcare professionals worldwide with training in the latest medical advancements and help prepare for future health emergencies. The official opening was attended by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, French President Emmanuel Macron, the Director of Institut Pasteur, the Director of the Robert Koch Institute, and the President of the Lyon Metropole.

The new campus is in Lyon's Gerland biodistrict, surrounded by pharmaceutical companies and scientific institutions, such as the P4 laboratory and the International Agency for Research on Cancer. France has contributed EUR120 million (US$129 million) to the WHO Academy, and for its medium-term operations, the WHO plans to mobilize additional funding from member states, the private sector, and foundations.

On October 10 and 11, 2024, the G7's Health Ministerial Meeting took place in Ancona, Italy. The discussion focused on three overarching priorities: Global Health Architecture and Pandemic Preparedness and Response, healthy and active aging, and the One Health Approach.

The G7 Health Ministers Communiqué, released at the end of the meeting, highlights the G7's commitment to supporting SDG #3 through universal health coverage, primary health care, and sexual and reproductive health. This also includes maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health, strengthening the global health architecture by investing in PPR, promoting regional manufacturing of health products, and equitable access to quality health services.

The communiqué emphasized the health-related impacts of conflicts with a reference to the crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, and Sudan. Furthermore, in the communiqué, the G7 Ministries committed to continue to support Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund, whose replenishment processes will occur in the upcoming months.

The Civil 7 engagement group, a platform through which civil society can engage with the G7, reacted with a communiqué in which they expressed an appreciation for the re-commitment to ending HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria through robust support for the Global Fund in its replenishment next year. This support is crucial to ending the three epidemics as agreed upon in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Finally, the G7 Health Ministers also adopted a policy brief on the opportunities presented by AI for both healthcare providers and patients.

On September 10, 2024, the European Commission’s HERA facilitated the delivery of nearly 100,000 mpox vaccine doses to the DRC, marking the first shipment of its kind to the country.

An additional 100,000 doses are expected soon, contributing to the total of 215,000 vaccines pledged to combat the mpox outbreak in Africa. Team Europe will donate a total of 566,500 mpox vaccine doses to affected African countries, with contributions from France, Germany, Spain, Malta, Portugal, Luxembourg, Croatia, Austria, and Poland.

The EC also released EUR1 million (US$1 million) in humanitarian assistance to support care, prevention, epidemiological surveillance, risk communication and distribution of kits in the DRC.

On September 4, 2024, five French NGOs published a communiqué that highlighted the threats of the mpox outbreak and the resulting health inequalities.

In the statement, AMREF, Global Health Advocates, Global Citizen, ONE and UNICEF stated that if the global community had acted earlier and with determination, the mpox outbreak could have been curbed and defeated. The statement asserted that despite early warnings, the crisis intensified, revealing a crucial need for vaccines and resources in Africa.

The statement highlighted that France can contribute to the eradication of the outbreak pandemic and strengthen health systems on an international scale by:

• Confirming its direct contribution to the response coordinated by the WHO and the Africa CDC against the mpox outbreak;
• Encouraging its European partners to enhance their efforts and prioritize health and R&D further within Team Europe;
• Mobilizing to support the replenishment of resources for multilateral health organizations such as the WHO, Gavi, the Global Fund, and Unitaid. The statement called for France to increase its contribution to Gavi;
• Participating in strengthening public and community health systems, particularly through the training of health workers; and
• Working towards the adoption of an international agreement for prevention, preparedness, and response to pandemics designed to address deeply inequitable access to health products.

On June 20, 2024, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron attended the Gavi Investment Opportunity and AVMA launch in Paris, France, and pledged to reallocate GBP49 million (US$58 million) to Gavi’s newly launched AVMA through reallocated COVID-19 funding already committed to Gavi.

Co-hosted by Gavi, the African Union, and France, the event saw Gavi lay out its investment case for 2026 and 2030 and call for US$9 billion in new donor funding.

The UK did not make an early pledge to Gavi’s new replenishment, unlike the US, France, Spain, and some philanthropic providers, which committed a total of US$2.4 billion. Gavi is set to engage in an intense period of fundraising with a view to hosting a final pledging event in 7 to 12 months.

Since the creation of Gavi, the UK has invested GBP5.5 billion (US$7 billion) in the organization, helping to vaccinate over a billion children and save millions of lives.

The UK did not provide an early pledge to Gavi's 2026-2030 replenishment.

On June 20, 2024, France hosted Gavi's investment case launch for 2026-2030 in Paris, where France pledged EUR100 million (US$107 million) to AVMA and stated that France would match its previous core funding pledge to Gavi.

The event in Paris marked the launch of the AVMA. France also pledged to provide EUR10 million (US$11 million) to support South African production of a cholera vaccine.

Gavi supports vaccine access for more than half of the world’s children against 20 infectious diseases. This mechanism will financially support regional vaccine production on the African continent by providing up to US$1 billion over ten years.

French civil society came in strong in support of mobilization for AVMA and Gavi, including Focus 2030, which published a special edition report explaining the objectives of AVMA, including past achievements and targets for the upcoming replenishment cycle.

On May 23-25, 2024, the G7 Ministers of Finance met at a summit in Stresa, Italy, where the ministers voiced support for contributions to the IDA, WHO, Gavi, and the Global Fund in the resulting communiqué.

The G7 ministers supported efforts towards a successful 21^st replenishment of the IDA by the end of 2024 through an ambitious policy and financing package. Notably, they did not give a concrete signal that the critical US$100 billion threshold requested by the World Bank will be crossed, nor any indication of the US$120 billion expected by African leaders.

The ministers reaffirmed their dedication to strengthening the governance and finance of the global health architecture and voiced support for refinancing processes of several GHIs, such as Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the WHO, and the Global Fund, and expressed support for the Pandemic Fund. The communiqué called on the donor community to coordinate efforts and increase investments in global health in line with their capacities to ensure sustainable funding and maximize the impact of available resources.

Following the summit, the C7 pointed out the G7's lack of ambition and financial commitment to international development, including climate adaptation. International civil society organizations criticized the lack of any reference to allocating SDRs to global solidarity.

On May 14-15, 2024, the C7 summit was held at the UN FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, organized by the Italian Civil Society Coalition that led, coordinated, and moderated the C7 2024 process.

Approximately 400 global representatives took part in the event, as well as international decision-makers, including FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, Italian G7 sherpa Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, Cardinal, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Pope’s envoy for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict Matteo Maria Zuppi, and Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign Marina Ponti.

The official C7 communiqué that listed the international civil society recommendation to the G7’s Leaders around seven key issues was released at the event, which included:

• Economic justice and transformation;
• Climate, energy transformation, and environmental justice;
• Global health;
• Principled humanitarian assistance;
• Peace, common security, and nuclear disarmament;
• Human mobility and migration; and
• Food justice and food systems transformation.

On April 25, 2024, France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that France will be hosting a Global Forum on vaccine sovereignty and innovation on June 20, 2024.

The event will take place in Paris and be co-hosted by the AU and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The forum was outlined as having two main objectives:

• It will launch the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator: The accelerator will provide funding for regional vaccine manufacturing on the African continent. Conceived by Gavi in close consultation with African disease prevention and control centers, it will contribute to the AU’s goal of manufacturing at least 60% of the vaccine doses needed by Africa on the African continent by 2040; and
• It will mark the start of Gavi’s replenishment campaign for 2026-2030: Gavi enables significant progress possible in the fight against such infectious diseases as malaria, dengue and cholera, whose risks of spreading are increased by climate disruption. It also contributes to better prevention of cervical cancer in women and girls.

On April 24, 2024, during World Immunization Week, Action Santé Mondiale, in collaboration with AMREF Health Africa France, Global Citizen, ONE, and UNICEF, launched the campaign A Dose of Solidarity, which aims to mobilize the international community and French policymakers on global vaccination issues and to highlight the commitment of civil society to the cause.

The statement highlighted that in the last 50 years, global vaccination campaigns have contributed to a reduction of over 80% in child mortality. It also noted that vaccination is recognized as one of the most effective and cost-efficient public health interventions, preventing between 3.5 and 5 million deaths per year.

The campaign stated that France's hosting of Gavi's investment plan launch on June 20, 2024, presents a unique opportunity to support global vaccination efforts in line with France's historical commitment to the cause. Since its creation in 2000, Gavi has been facilitating the introduction of new vaccines in LICs. With the launch of the AVMA, the organization is committed to supporting the decentralization of vaccine production to reduce inequalities in access to vaccination at the global level.