Rebuilding Trust Through Action: Embracing Innovation and Equity in Healthcare at Davos 2024

The World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2024 is just concluding in Davos, Switzerland, under the theme ‘Rebuilding Trust’. A gathering of global leaders, thinkers, and innovators, this event has the potential to be a powerful catalyst to advance healthcare in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Though sometimes seen as a convergence of global elites, instead it should be viewed as a platform where critical dialogues can lead to tangible outcomes and partnerships, driving progress in areas that matter most to our communities.

Health is the foundation of society and over the last decades, innovation in science has enabled people to live longer, healthier lives. And when we’re healthy, economies prosper too. So, we must put health first - strengthening health systems so that they are resilient, equitable and net zero, and transforming how healthcare is delivered. The urgency of this vision is particularly acute in our region, which is currently experiencing compounded crises relating to increased conflict and a warming climate, with a profound impact on health.

As a melting pot where governments, businesses, civil society, and academia unite, WEF is fundamentally a platform for facilitating collaboration. It is a vehicle to collectively build resilient health systems capable of withstanding climate change, future pandemics, economic fluctuations, and societal changes by fostering public-private partnerships at the highest level. These collaborations are not just theoretical constructs; they are essential to address the complex health challenges facing our region and the world.

Take the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI), a joint venture launched at Davos in 2020 to actively engage the private sector in efforts to achieve global climate, biodiversity, and Sustainable Development targets. In just three years, SMI’s Health Taskforce, convened by 阿斯利康 's CEO Pascal Soriot, which includes leaders from the private sector as well as multilateral institutions like the World Health Organization and UNICEF, has launched shared supplier targets, is working to inject radical transparency into the measurement of emissions from healthcare products and is exploring ways to decarbonise clinical trials.

Likewise, the Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) is strengthening health systems across the world through collaboration at the national level. Founded by the London School of Economics (LSE), WEF and AstraZeneca, PHSSR engages with local health experts to co-develop tools that enable policymakers to integrate economic and environmental considerations into their health systems. For example, PHSSR’s research in Saudi Arabia showed an underestimation of required health workforce numbers, which has led to the government setting ambitious targets for training new health workers in response.[i]

With active engagements in countries like the UAE, Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco and many other countries worldwide, the PHSSR movement is being embraced by those countries willing to look longer-term at how to ensure a healthy and thriving population. In an exciting development, the initiative is discussing with the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to expand its reach into sub-Saharan Africa this year, showcasing its growing influence in global health system resilience.

The SMI and PHSSR both recognise that health is a long-term investment in our future rather than a short-term cost to be managed.

Of course, to face any criticism head-on, the attendees of Davos must not shy away from tackling stickier issues where progress is not so forthcoming. Equity remains a significant challenge, especially in the MEA region, in many sectors but certainly in health. Innovation in health is happening faster than ever before, but it is imperative that these new tools are made more accessible to all. Through initiatives like Healthy Heart Africa (HHA), which has trained and equipped over 1000 healthcare facilities across the continent to provide hypertension services and identified nearly 10 million people with hypertension[ii], AstraZeneca is working with governments to address the growing burden of non-communicable disease by improving access to quality healthcare. Davos is a platform to showcase programmes like this, demonstrating to other companies and stakeholders that with the right approach, warm words can be transformed into concrete actions.

Ultimately, WEF can be more than a forum for dialogue; it can be a catalyst for action. Each interaction at Davos has the potential to shape the future of healthcare, not just in the Middle East and Africa, but globally. And by putting health equity at the centre of these discussions, we can help contribute to the long-term stability and prosperity of this region. It is up to those of us that wish to build a brighter future to be at the forefront of these conversations and drive transformative change. After all, a sustainable future starts with health.

[i] D. Gocke et al, Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience: Building Sustainable and Resilient Health Systems, May 2023, https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_PHSSR_Building_Sustainable_and_Resilient_Health_Systems_2023.pdf ?? (Last accessed January 2024)

[ii] Healthy Heart Africa: https://www.astrazeneca.com/sustainability/access-to-healthcare/healthy-heart-africa.html (Last access January 2024)