Global Health
Introduction
Health is one of the World Economic Forum’s key focus areas as it is directly aligned with the Forum’s mission: Committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in shaping the global, regional and industry agendas. The Forum focuses on three key health-related activities: advocacy, dialogue and action through partnership.
The Forum recognises health as an important part of long-term economic development and engages its members and other stakeholders to advocate health as an investment.
Health is an issue that involves multiple stakeholders – intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, local governments, academic experts, private organizations, and others, all of which are trying to contribute to health and to ensure availability and quality of health services. The Forum is uniquely positioned to connect these stakeholders and catalyze improved efficiency through meaningful dialogue and interactions within the global health agenda.
Recognising that private sector participation is critical to addressing health issues, the Forum plays an active role in engaging the private sector and setting up public-private partnerships (PPP) to help address global health challenges.
Health is an area in which entrepreneurship can flourish. It is the mission of the Forum’s Health team to galvanise business to take action in global health. A comprehensive and holistic approach to improving health reveals several gaps – opportunities wherein ideas and industries can thrive with a focus on health.
In terms of healthcare delivery, there's growing recognition that the old models are not sustainable in developed countries. They also do not provide broad enough access in the less developed world. As chronic and non-communicable disease rates continue to climb, governments, private sector, and non-governmental organizations are wrestling with how to provide, disseminate, and pay for adequate prevention and treatment. Emerging markets could play a key role in the solution as a source of innovation arising from the availability of talent and cost structures.
The objectives of the dialogue on healthcare delivery are to better understand the role of the private sector in healthcare delivery, identify new innovative cost effective models of quality healthcare delivery and generate greater awareness of the identified scalable and replicable models across markets.
What if we lost the use of antibiotics?
Otto Cars, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Uppsala University, warns that the days of curing pneumonia and carrying out organ transplants will be over unless we tackle antibiotic resistance. The interview is part of the Risk Response Network’s “What if?” series.Why is this something that worries you? When Alexander Fleming was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering penicillin in 1945, in his acceptance speech he warned that the misuse of this medicine would lead to the development of bacterial resistance. Researchers have always known that if you use antibiotics, bacteria will...
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September 25, 2012
Special Meeting on Economic Growth and Job Creation in the Arab World
Dead Sea, Jordan 21-23 October 2011Special Meeting on Economic Growth and Job Creation in the Arab World Recent shifts in the Arab world coupled with an economic contraction at the global level have created a new urgency for decision-makers across the region: the need to address the fundamental conditions required to revive growth and support human development.Now more than ever, it is critical to match employment, entrepreneurship and education prospects with the aspirations of young populations. This has clearly become a key in the decisions taken by government, industry and civil...
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October 21, 2011
The Global Economic Burden of Non-communicable Diseases
Non-communicable diseases have been established as a clear threat not only to human health, but also to development and economic growth. Claiming 63% of all deaths, these diseases are currently the world’s main killer. Eighty percent of these deaths now occur in low- and middle-income countries. Half of those who die of chronic non-communicable diseases are in the prime of their productive years, and thus, the disability imposed and the lives lost are also endangering industry competitiveness across borders.
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September 19, 2011
Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2011
Dalian, People's Republic of China 14-16 SeptemberMastering Quality GrowthThe Annual Meeting of the New Champions, the “Summer Davos”, is the foremost global business gathering in Asia. Introduced in 2007 in close collaboration with the People’s Republic of China and with the personal support of Premier Wen Jiabao, the 2010 Meeting in Tianjin convened 1,300 participants, including over 400 CEOs from Forum Partner and Member companies together with up-and-coming leaders from business, politics, science and technology from 80 countries. In 2011, there was even stronger participation with over 1...
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September 14, 2011
World Economic Forum on East Asia 2011
Jakarta, Indonesia, 12-13 June 2011Responding to the New Globalism
Robust economic growth and an improved investment climate have underpinned the economic recovery of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), buoyed by an emerging market of nearly 600 million consumers. The planned economic integration by 2015 will see ASEAN emerge as the world’s 10th largest economy. As Chair of ASEAN in 2011, its largest economy and a member of the G20, Indonesia is the ideal location to host the 20th anniversary of the World Economic Forum on East Asia, convening leaders from business,...
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June 12, 2011
World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia 2011
Vienna, Austria, 8-9 June 2011
Expanding the Frontiers of Innovation
Europe and Central Asia 2011 - From Lisbon to VladivostokThis video was first aired in the Opening Plenary of the World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia.The diverse yet highly interdependent economies of Europe and Central Asia have reached a critical juncture. While the advanced economies of the European Union are experiencing fiscal austerity and slower growth, emerging economies further east and in Central Asia are grappling with the pressures of rapid growth.All the...
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June 8, 2011
World Economic Forum on Africa 2011
Cape Town, South Africa, 4-6 May 2011From Vision to Action, Africa’s Next Chapter “Partnerships are desirable and necessary and have worked well for us,” Tanzanian President Jakaya M. Kikwete told participants in a session on innovative partnerships for development. Added Kofi Annan “Our vision is not just to help farmers to feed themselves but also to feed the markets so Africa can become part of the global food security system. This is not a pipe dream.”News Release | Livestreamed SessionsDespite long-standing commercial ties with Europe, Africa now conducts half its trade with...
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May 4, 2011
World Economic Forum on Latin America 2011
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 27-29 April 2011
Laying the Foundation for a Latin American Decade
World leaders tapped into the Social Media Corner at Rio de Janeiro to share their session highlights and discuss the ideas and actions they would take away.
Thoughts on Global Governance by Moises Naim,
Senior International Economics Program at Carnergie Endowment
Take-aways on womens development by Laura Liswood,
Secretary General of the Council of Women World Leaders
Talking Global Risks by Arturo Condo,
President of INCAE Business School
Watch all the regions most influential...
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April 27, 2011
Raising Healthy Children
DownloadHow can disease and mortality rates among children in developing countries be radically decreased?The following dimensions will be addressed:- Access to medicines and vaccinations- Maternal health and nutrition- Social and cultural factorsModerated byJosette SheeranPanellistsBono, Margaret Chan, Melinda French Gates, Muhtar A. Kent, Lars Rebien Sorensen
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January 27, 2011
Transforming Pensions and Healthcare in a Rapidly Ageing World: Opportunities and Collaborative Strategies
Based on the output of the Scenarios in 2030, this report highlights 11 options to better cater for the changing retirement and healthcare expectations, especially in the current time when resources are stretched. The report makes the case for an integrated response and looks at pensions and healthcare in tandem for future sustainability and suggests solutions from the opportunities rather than challenges and risks.
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December 9, 2010
Harnessing Private-Sector Capabilities to Meet Public Needs
Harnessing Private-Sector Capabilities to Meet Public Needs: The Potential of Partnerships to Advance Progress on Hunger, Malaria and Basic Education outlines action the private sector can take to help meet the Millennium Development Goals on hunger, malaria and basic education.
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November 14, 2010
The Future of Pensions and Healthcare in a Rapidly Ageing World: Scenarios to 2030
This report identifies 3 global scenarios for 2030 and 2 sets of case studies from China and India. These scenarios are designed to challenge current thinking, create new insights, facilitate the debate between key decision-makers and provide momentum for action. New forms of collaboration between key stakeholders – individuals, financial institutions, healthcare providers, employers and governments – will be critical to finance the ongoing well-being of current and future generations in a sustainable manner.
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November 3, 2010
Transforming Pensions and Healthcare in a Rapidly Ageing World: Opportunities and Collaborative Strategies
Based on the output of the Scenarios in 2030, this report highlights 11 options to better cater for the changing retirement and healthcare expectations, especially in the current time when resources are stretched. The report makes the case for an integrated response and looks at pensions and healthcare in tandem for future sustainability and suggests solutions from the opportunities rather than challenges and risks.
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November 3, 2010
mHealth
Emerging mobile platforms and the rapid progress in medical technologies are poised to trigger more accessible health services in the decade to come.Mobile Health (or m-health) is the cover-all term for the use of mobile devices in the healthcare arena. The key benefit of mobile devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) or mobile phones is in the way it enable communication and the delivery of medical information between practitioners and patients.Mobile health may be of particular benefit in the developed world where hand-held devices and other mobile communications systems are in...
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October 22, 2010
A Charter for Health Data
Endorsing the Global Health Data Charter The current list of organizations that endorsed the Global Health Data Charter can be found here. Should your organization be interested in endorsing this Charter and adding its name to the 'Global Health Data Charter Endorsement' document, kindly contact: datacharter@weforum.org.Background to the IssueFinding accurate data can be a serious problem in developing countries and this limits the ability of policy makers to plan and provide appropriate levels of healthcare services. The main problem with data is that it is often incomplete...
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October 20, 2010
Innovative healthcare delivery models
Finding solutions for some of the health problems that we face will require a new approach. For endemic conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, there needs to be a way of incentivizing major pharmaceutical companies to find affordable treatments for people on a low income. As chronic and non-communicable disease rates continue to climb, governments, private sector, and non-governmental organizations are wrestling with how to provide, disseminate, and pay for adequate prevention and treatment.The general agreement is that the old model of delivery is not sustainable in the...
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October 20, 2010
Healthy Living
The links between healthy populations, productive workforces and economic growth is well established. Worldwide, $47 trillion of cumulative output loss can be expected in the next two decades due to chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health disorders. Already 36 million deaths annually or more than 60% of global deaths are due to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. However, 80% of cardiovascular problems and 40% of cancers can be prevented by tackling key risk factors.Effective prevention of NCDs will require exceptional levels of...
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October 20, 2010
