Built Together, Fit for All: Pathways and Priorities for Global Health Architecture Reform

Global health architecture reform has gained significant momentum in the lead-up to the 79th World Health Assembly, with multiple initiatives seeking to reassess and reshape governance, financing, and institutional arrangements to better respond to current and future health challenges. The forthcoming WHO-led joint process on global health architecture reform presents an important opportunity to define both the direction and the legitimacy of these efforts.

However, evidence from recent HEAR CSO consultations and global survey data highlights a critical gap: while communities and civil society actors—particularly those directly impacted by health inequities—are highly prepared to engage in reform discussions, they remain largely excluded from existing processes. Nearly three-quarters of respondents report readiness to participate, yet fewer than one in ten have been directly engaged to date.

This gap poses a fundamental risk to the effectiveness, equity, and sustainability of reform outcomes. Achieving meaningful transformation will require moving beyond high-level commitments to inclusion toward concrete, practical steps that enable people with lived experience to participate in—and shape—governance, decision-making, and implementation. This hybrid event is designed to catalyze that shift by focusing on actionable pathways to ensure that reform processes are both built together and fit for all.

Objectives

Surface practical pathways for inclusive governance: Identify concrete actions that Member States, WHO, and other stakeholders can take to ensure meaningful participation of civil society and communities affected by health inequities in reform processes.
Explore and refine concepts of regional leadership: What principles and practices can guide a cohesive response to diverse regional realities?
Inform the WHO joint reform process: Gather and report out on insights and priorities for future Member State deliberations.