World Health Summit 2025 – Side Event on 13 October 2025: Who Pays to Keep the World Safe? – A Call to Empower Countries through Collaborative Surveillance
Session Description
As countries strive to build better health systems post-COVID-19, there are both unique opportunities and threats emerging from the foundations of public health: surveillance. The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence and the Gates Foundation will convene this closed-door, high-level forum of around 60 leaders from governments, donors, implementing partners, and public health agencies to respond to this critical moment.
Participants highlight the value of Collaborative Surveillance (CS) as a pathway to greater efficiency and stronger protection against future health threats. The conversation will focus on how this moment provides an opportunity to overcome fragmentation and funding silos by aligning investments, learning from country experiences and agreeing on financing principles. Our goal is to shape better investments in CS that increase efficiency and unlock its direct and indirect benefits across community protection, countermeasures, clinical care, and emergency coordination.
Discussions will aim to converge on a shared vision for the future of surveillance and a call to action for Collaborative Surveillance as a global public good, supported by predictable, coordinated investment and financing principles to empower countries to detect, report, and respond to health threats as early as possible. The forum will set the stage for stronger collaboration around better-designed financing and implementation of major international surveillance initiatives.
Objectives
- Showcase how Collaborative Surveillance delivers important efficiency gains and benefits in generating timely data for action, especially amid budget constraints
- Convene global leaders to draw lessons from country experience and identify opportunities to address underfunding and fragmentation while increasing efficiency in surveillance
- Build momentum for joint action: shaping shared approaches to CS and agreed financing principles that empower countries.
Welcome Remarks and Moderation
- Mr Kieran Daly | Director, Global Health Agencies & Funds | The Gates Foundation
- Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu | Executive Director | WHO Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program
- Dr Oliver Morgan | Head of Office | WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence
- Mr Paul Zubeil | Deputy Director-General European and International Health Politics | Federal Ministry of Health, Germany
Scene Setting and Panel Discussion Highlights:
- Dr Pak Sumarjaya | Director of Surveillance and Health Quarantine | Ministry of Health Indonesia
- Dr Wolfgang Philipp | Chief Science Officer, Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), European Commission
- Ms Priya Basu | Executive Head | Pandemic Fund
- Dr Simon N. Antara | Executive Director | African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET)
- Mr Matthias Seiche | Head of Division for Pandemic Prevention and One Health | Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany
- Mr Peter Sands | Executive Director | Global Fund
- Dr Paul M. Zulu | Director for Emergency Preparedness and Response | Zambia National Public Health Institute
- Ms Amanda McClelland | Senior Vice President | Resolve to Save Lives
Attendance at this event requires a valid WHS 2025 registration. As seats are limited, we encourage you to complete your registration at your earliest convenience. You will receive a confirmation email once your registration is successful.
