Mission

Finding Solutions for Global Health

The World Health Summit is the unique international strategic forum for global health. It brings together stakeholders from politics, science, the private sector, and civil society from around the world to set the agenda for a healthier future by inspiring innovative solutions for better health and wellbeing for all.

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.

Science-Based Approach

The World Health Summit stands for a science-driven and broad approach to global health development. The key issues are therefore interdisciplinary, science-based, cross-sectoral, and concerted. They are vital to set the global health agenda for the years to come.

The World Health Summit promotes health as a human right, along with good governance, as political decisions affect human health.

Academic Background

The World Health Summit was founded in 2009 on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Berlin’s Charité Hospital and is traditionally held under the patronage of the German Chancellor, the President of the Republic of France, the President of the European Commission, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The academic foundation of the World Health Summit is the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers, Universities, and National Academies of Medicine and Sciences, a unique network of leading academic health centers, universities, and research institutions from all over the world. In addition to the World Health Summit in October in Berlin, the M8 Alliance organizes annual Regional Meetings and Expert Meetings around the world.

Statements

"The members of the World Health Summit and its academic backbone, the M8 Alliance, are convinced that global health crises can be tackled only through worldwide collaboration. An international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral forum like the World Health Summit, convening leading experts from science, politics, business, and civil society from all over the world in an environment of academic freedom and friendship, couldn’t be more important right now and in the foreseeable future."
Axel R. Pries, World Health Summit President

"The World Health Summit began in 2009 as an international, interdisciplinary conference in Berlin and has grown into the foremost international strategic forum for global health. The M8 Alliance, the World Health Summit’s academic backbone from its earliest days, has proven itself as a distinctive and great academic network. Good Health for All is our shared commitment and responsibility."
Detlev Ganten, World Health Summit Founding President

Short Cut

The World Health Summit is the unique international strategic forum for global health. It brings together stakeholders from all sectors and all regions of the world to strengthen collaboration and open dialogue guided by science, to foster global health as a key political issue, and to promote the global health debate in the spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Three Pillars of the World Health Summit

Global Challenges
On the agenda are pressing issues such as pandemic preparedness, strategies for improving global healthcare, digitalization, the health aspects of climate change, interdisciplinary cooperation in research, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Global Responsibilities
Health for everyone everywhere must be improved with sustainable, science-based, innovative solutions, because health is a human right.

Global Networking
International figures and bodies from the fields of science, politics, the private sector, and civil society from all regions of the world come together to promote and strengthen cooperative efforts.