Ever since January 2025, when President Trump ordered the dissolution of USAID and announced that the USA would leave the WHO, global health has been in turmoil. With more than 18 months gone since that announcement, further topics than the defunding of global health programs have emerged in discussion: A crisis of funding models through NGOs, increased geopolitical pressure in a multipolar world, an insecure future for the WHO and finally, a growing crisis of knowledge in medical science and education as a result of the spread of AI.
Our Open conversation “Global Health: Where Does the Future Lie?” offers a platform to discuss this. Statements by four speakers lead to an open discussion on the state of being and future of global health.
Speakers
- Ange Chanelle Akimana, PhD student at the University of Belgrade
- Antoine de Bengy Puyvallée, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo
- Stellah Mpagama, Head of research at Kibong’oto Infectious Disease Hospital/Tanzania Institute for Infectious Diseases, Sanya Juu
- Benjamin Smart, Professor at the University of Johannesburg
Moderators
- Christoph Gradmann, University of Oslo
- Lara Tavoschi, University of Pisa
After this Open Conversation, participants will:
- Have acquired knowledge about relevant features in the current crisis of global health from smouldering NGO financing, through challenged disease control programs, threatened work on maternal health, to the epistemological challenge in times of AI and fake science.
- Deepen their understanding of how global health and geopolitics are connected in an increasingly multipolar political situation.
