Open Briefing – Introduction To The 79Th World Health Assembly: Can Global Health Make Progress Amid Rupture?

Alongside the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA79), the Graduate Institute Global Health Centre (GHC) and the United Nations Foundation (UNF) will co-host their annual open briefing, this year titled Can Global Health Make Progress Amid Rupture? Since 2015, this public event has opened the WHA week with a forward-looking exchange on the modalities and defining issues before the Assembly.
Convening delegates, non-state actors, academics, media, and broader audiences, the briefing provides critical analysis of the political, financial, and public health dynamics shaping global health cooperation. The event will be held in a hybrid format—virtually and in person at the Ivan Pictet Auditorium at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Guided by the vision of greater self-reliance for all countries, the global health architecture in 2026 is being realigned through evolving partnerships, funding models, and approaches to diplomacy. A proliferation of reform initiatives has generated both momentum and fragmentation. The 158th WHO Executive Board decision mandating the WHO Secretariat to design a joint process to reconcile and align the various global health reform efforts signals recognition by Member States that coherence is urgently needed. At the same time, global conflict, fiscal constraints, and shifting development priorities are reshaping the landscape for multilateral cooperation.
As countries gather at WHA79, they will confront fundamental questions about how to ensure that the evolving ecosystem of actors, instruments, and norms delivers more equitable, effective, and accountable outcomes. Can Member States forge a shared pathway toward a more coherent and resilient system of global health governance, or will entrenched power dynamics and geopolitical upheaval prevent meaningful reform?

SPEAKERS
1. Opening remarks | Suerie Moon, Co-Director, Global Health Centre and Professor of Practice, International Relations, Geneva Graduate Institute
2. Gian Luca Burci, Senior Visiting Professor of International Law and Academic Adviser, Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute
3. Lwazi Manzi, Head of Secretariat of the Global Leaders Network for Women, Children and Adolescent Health, South Africa
4. John-Arne Rottingen, CEO, Wellcome Trust
5. Mencia Manso de Zuñiga, Global Health Ambassador, Spain
6. Yik Ying Teo, Vice President (Global Health), National University of Singapore
7. Moderator | Cecilia Mundaca Shah, Vice President for Global Health Strategy, UN Foundation