Background Books
Health: A Political Choice – The Future of Health in a Fractured World
Edited by Ilona Kickbusch and John Kirton
Published by GT Media, 2025
Free downloadable electronic version available here
See also the Global Governance Project
Welcome
- Fragmenting consensus in a fragmenting world
- Axel R Pries, president, World Health Summit
Introductions
- From dependency to self-reliance: A new chapter in global health
- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general, World Health Organization
- Health at the heart of a fairer future
- Amina J Mohammed, deputy secretary-general, United Nations
- Reclaiming momentum – delivering health in a world of risk
- Achim Steiner, former administrator, United Nations Development Programme
- Compounding threats, collective response: Why health must drive Europe’s future
- Enrico Letta, president, Jacques Delors Institute, and dean, IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs, IE University
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Spotlight
- Universal coverage at the heart of global health
- Interview with Pakishe Aaron Motsoaledi, minister of health, South Africa
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Editors' introductions
- Global health transformation 3x3x3
- Ilona Kickbusch, founding director, Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies
- Fostering a fine future for global health in a fractured world
- John Kirton, director, Global Governance Program
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Spotlight
- Protecting planetary boundaries
- Interview with Johan Rockström, director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Virchow Prize Laureate 2024
Planetary Health and Climate Change
- Better decisions with better data
- Gordon G Liu, Peking University BOYA Distinguished Professor of Economics and dean, and Bernhard Schwartländer, co-chair of the Governing Board and Distinguished Research Professor of Global Health, Peking University Institute for Global Health and Development
- Bridging climate and health to heal a fractured world
- Abdulla Al Mandous, president, World Meteorological Organization, and director-general, National Center of Meteorology, United Arab Emirates
- Integrating animal health into a fractured world: A One Health approach to climate resilience
- Emmanuelle Soubeyran, director-general, World Organisation for Animal Health
- Beyond political choice: A legal mandate for planetary health in a fractured world
- Alexandra L Phelan, professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and senior scholar, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
- A new playbook for global health: Investing in infrastructure for planetary health
- Ajay Bhushan Pandey, vice president, Investment Solutions, and Erik Berglof, chief economist, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
- Health as a political choice: From overshoot to well-being societies
- Rüdiger Krech, director, Environment, Climate Change, Migration and One Health, a.i., World Health Organization
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Spotlight
- Reimagining the global health architecture: An African roadmap for shared security
- Jean Kaseya, director-general, Africa Centres for Disease
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Pandemics
- The Pandemic Agreement is a major achievement
- Precious Matsoso and Roland Driece, former co-chairs, Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for a Pandemic Agreement
- It’s time to leap to a new global health architecture
- Sania Nishtar, chief executive officer, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
- Building vaccine sovereignty: Africa’s path to resilient health security
- Nicaise Ndembi, Africa Regional Office, International Vaccine Institute
- Strengthening national public health institutes: Fiocruz’s perspective
- Mario Santos Moreira, president, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Paulo Marchiori Buss, former president, and João Miguel Estephanio
- Licensing for equity: Why access to medicines needs a new global approach
- Charles Gore, executive director, Medicines Patents Pool
- UN HLM on Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health – A case of same old, same old?
- C James Hospedales, chair, executive committee, Defeat-NCD Partnership, and founder, EarthMedic and EarthNurse Foundation for Planetary Health
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Spotlight
- From dialogue to direction: Enabling partnerships to drive the future of health
- Balvir S Tomar, founder and chancellor, NIMS University
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Special Section: Scientific Innovation, Research and Technology
- A shift in the centre of gravity and a shift in opportunity (includes section introduction)
- Jeremy Farrar, assistant director-general, Fatima Serhan, executive officer, Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Care Division, and Thidar Pyone, technical officer, Office of the Chief Scientist, World Health Organization
- On being unapologetically pro-regulation
- Bilal Mateen, chief AI officer, PATH
- Poor, sick and unconnected: The paradox of digital health
- Cesar Victora, professor emeritus of epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil
- Science and solidarity: A new paradigm for global health
- Yasmine Belkaid, president, Institut Pasteur, Mario Santos Moreira, president, Pasteur Network, and Rebecca Grais, executive director, Pasteur Network
- The only way is forward together
- Soumya Swaminathan, chair, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, and Harkabir Singh Jandu
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Spotlight
- American anti-science activism is globalising
- Peter Hotez, professor of paediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology; co-director, Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development; and dean, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
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Information Integrity
- Health in the age of disinformation: Protecting truth, protecting democracy
- Alain Berset, secretary general, Council of Europe
- The Health with Science Programme experience: Information integrity in the Global South
- Ethel Leonor Maciel, former secretary of health and environmental surveillance, Brazil
- Belief in science has eroded, but we can rebuild it
- Aviva Philipp-Muller, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University
- Now more than ever: We need quality health information for all
- Scott C Ratzan, co-chair, Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All
- The collaborative future of public health intelligence
- Oliver Morgan, head, WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, and Rithika Sangameshwaran, CPC Analytics
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Spotlight
- Health: A political choice
- Interview with Dan Smith, former executive director, SIPRI
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Security from War, Conflict and Crime
- Safeguarding the right to health in crisis
- Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
- Health at the margins: Displacement and the global promise we must keep
- Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
- Health and human security: Core to national and global stability
- Esperanza Martinez, professor of practice, Australian National University, and commissioner, The Lancet Commission on Health, Conflict and Forced Displacement
- Finding alignment in a multi-aligned world
- David Miliband, president and CEO, International Rescue Committee
- The health and well-being of women and girls in a fractured world
- Pascale Allotey, Inka Weissbecker and Alanna Galati, Department of Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, and Department of Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health, World Health Organization
- Strengthening biosecurity at the health and security interface
- Greg Hinds, director, Counter-Terrorism, Interpol
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Spotlight
- Passing the torch: From West to East
- Kishore Mahbubani, distinguished fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Improving Global Health Institutions and Instruments
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Improving global health instruments and institutions
- From crisis to consensus: The historic gavel of the Pandemic Agreement
- Teodoro J Herbosa, secretary of health, the Philippines, and president, 78th World Health Assembly
- Health and multilateralism: Brazil’s political choice in a fractured world
- Alexandre Padilha, minister of health, Brazil
- Promoting health, preventing illness
- Interview with Budi Gunadi Sadikin, minister of health, Indonesia
- China’s approach to global health governance and its adherence to multilateralism
- Jin Jiyong, distinguished professor (Shanghai Oriental scholar), School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Shanghai International Studies University
- From crisis to cohesion: A new mandate for health and multilateralism
- Dinesh Arora, principal health specialist, Asian Development Bank
- Catalysts for change: The evolving role of philanthropy in global health
- Interview with Gabriel M Leung, executive director (charities and community), Hong Kong Jockey Club
- Beyond traditional aid: Redirecting billionaire philanthropy to health outcomes
- Raj Kumar, president and editor-in-chief, Devex
- Dying too young: How worsening health and loss of trust in politics gives us the worst possible governments
- Martin McKee, professor of European public health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
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Sponsored content
- Healthspan: A global imperative for humanity’s future
- Mehmood Khan, CEO, Hevolution Foundation
- The equity bias in cardiovascular care we can’t ignore
- Oliver Appelhans, Head of the European Specialty Business Unit at Daiichi Sankyo Europe
- The unfinished agenda: Why NTD elimination remains a political choice
- Kelly Zongo, Vincent Okungu and Carol Karutu, The End Fund
- The Catalyst Effect: Unlocking innovation for global NCD care through cross-sector collaboration
- Jon Fairest, head of Global Health Unit, Sanofi
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