Date: May 20, 2025

Time: 9:00-10:30 am CEST

Location: In-person 9-11 Rue de Varembé, Geneva, Switzerland (Centre de Conférence de Varembé)

Format: Hybrid (In-person + Online)

• Location for In-person: 9-11 Rue de Varembé, Geneva, Switzerland (Centre de Conférence de Varembé)
• Register here to join online: https://bit.ly/4m80HFK

Organizers: UHC2030, CSEM for UHC2030, the United Nations Foundation, WACI Health

Register here

Background

2025’s shock waves in global health financing are prompting a reset in how health is financed and delivered globally, making the Lusaka Agenda more relevant than ever. As the global architecture for health financing is reconstructed, countries and communities must be at the centre, delivering on a vision of domestically-financed health systems and universal health coverage that leaves no-one behind.
Civil society organizations are helping to shape the implementation and monitoring of the Lusaka Agenda, a framework for transforming health financing and accelerating progress toward universal health coverage. This includes through comprehensive inputs to Africa CDC’s Lusaka Agenda accountability framework and scorecard, participation in WHO-AFRO-convened Lusaka Agenda champion country meetings and in-country work, and participation in the Gavi/Global Fund/Global Financing Facility Joint Committee Working Group.
The aid effectiveness and health financing reform ideas offered by the Lusaka Agenda will continue to inspire new ways of thinking and problem-solving both new and persistent challenges in health financing and operational efficiency in global health. Reimagining the global architecture for health financing will be more actionable and more sustainable with the input and engagement of civil society and communities.

Objective

This session on the margins of the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly (WHA) is an important opportunity to bring together stakeholders – including champion countries, global health initiatives, civil society, global and regional health organizations and donors – to take stock of the seismic changes to global health financing that have occurred over the past months, and strengthen collaboration and alignment for effective implementation of the Lusaka Agenda.

Format

The session will take the form of a panel discussion followed by a moderated Q&A. It will be open to those attending the WHA in Geneva and to virtual participants (tbd).

Proposed Program

9:05 – 9:15 am: Welcome & Scene Setting Remarks

• Dr. Pam Cipriano, Steering Committee Co-Chair, UHC2030 and President of the International Council of Nurses
• Dr Lwazi Manzi, Head of Secretariat, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s African Union Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Commission

9:15 – 10:00 am: Panel Discussion: The Lusaka Agenda in a New Era of Health
Financing

• Dr. Mebratu Massebo, Chief of Staff, Ministry of Health, Ethiopia
• Dr. Polydor Mbongani Kabila, Coordinator, National Council on Universal Health Coverage, DRC
• Ms. Hannah Burris, Chief of Staff, Gavi

10:00 – 10:20 am:  Moderated Discussion

• Moderator: Rosemary Mburu, Executive Director, WACI Health

10:20 – 10:30 am:  Closing Reflections

• Dr Kalipso Chalkidou, Director of Health Financing and Economics at the World Health Organization