By Catherine Murombedzi
- Global Health Strategy: WHA 77 approved a four-year, $11.1 billion strategy for global health to promote, provide, and protect health and well-being for all people, with an emphasis on climate change, aging, migration, pandemic threats, and equity.
- Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 14): The strategy has six strategic objectives, including responding to climate change, addressing health determinants, advancing primary health care, improving health service coverage, preventing health risks, and rapidly detecting and responding to health emergencies.
- WHO Investment Case: WHO launched an investment case to save 40 million lives and improve the health of 6 billion people, seeking investment in its 2025–2028 strategy.
- Opening of the Health Assembly: The Health Assembly opened with the election of Dr. Edwin Dikoloti of Botswana as the President of the Health Assembly, and the delegates heard from various high-level speakers.
- Director-General’s Award for Global Health: Dr. Tedros presented the Director-General’s Award for Global Health to Professor Katalin Karikó and Professor Drew Weissman for their contributions to the development of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19.
- TB Vaccine Accelerator Council: The council agreed on three key acceleration tracks to expedite the development, approval, access, and deployment of new TB vaccines and will convene a TB vaccine financing conference in 2025.
- Theme: The theme of WHA 77 is “All for Health, Health for All.”
- Proceedings: The proceedings were webcast live, and recordings are available on the WHO website.
https://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_wha77.html - Agenda Items: The assembly discussed various agenda items, including pandemic treaty and amendments to International Health Regulations, universal health coverage, and war, conflict, and emergency services. — Source– WHO
