Global Health 2050: The Lancet Commission on Investing in Health 3.0

In 2013, The Lancet published “Global Health 2035: a world converging within a generation,” the first report of the Commission on Investing in Health (CIH 1.0), which laid out an ambitious path towards a global health transformation. It showed the technical and financial feasibility of “grand convergence” — a reduction in avertable deaths from infections and maternal and child health conditions by 2025. CIH 1.0 endorsed the movement toward publicly financed Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to achieve better health outcomes and financial protection of populations. To achieve grand convergence and UHC goals, CIH 1.0 concluded that major increases in public finance would be required in many countries.

A second report of the CIH (CIH 2.0), “Alma Ata at 40 years: reflections from the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health," was published by the Lancet in 2018. CIH 2.0 examined progress towards convergence — substantial against HIV and child mortality but much less promising against Tuberculosis (TB) and maternal mortality.

Rising geopolitical tensions, climate change, growth in nationalistic populism, dwindling concern for global health, and, most significantly, the COVID-19 pandemic have defined the years subsequent to publication of CIH 1.0. At this World Health Summit keynote, the CIH will launch a third report, CIH 3.0, that will assess these challenges — as well as opportunities for investment in health in the post-COVID era. Despite the headwinds, this keynote will describe how the CIH remains convinced that ever-improving technical capacity combined with probably continued economic growth offer the potential for major health improvements to provide large gains in human welfare.