Reflections on WHS2025: From Berlin to Action
- Caroline Van Cauwelaert
- Oct 15
- 3 min read
Earlier this month, EPCON joined hundreds of global health leaders, researchers, and advocates at the World Health Summit 2025 in Berlin — a forum pulsating with urgency, hope, and the need for transformation. Under the banner “Taking Responsibility for Health in a Fragmenting World,” the summit challenged participants to move beyond rhetoric into tangible change.
In this post, I’d like to share key highlights, reflect on powerful messages, and explain how we at EPCON see these ideas connecting with our mission — especially around neglected diseases, health systems, and TB.
Jean Kaseya: Africa as a Co-Creator
Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC, delivered a striking message: “We are now saying: Africa is ready. We don’t want to be invited. We are the co-creator of this global architecture.”
His words reminded us that genuine partnerships must respect agency and leadership from regions often relegated to recipient status. Too often, global health is framed as a one-way pipeline of resources; Kaseya’s message insists on mutual design, shared governance, and local ownership.
In his contributions, he also participated in panels such as “Partnering for Pandemic Preparedness,” emphasizing Africa’s readiness to move from passive beneficiary to strategic partner.
Broader Voices & Alignments
Beyond Kaseya, many speakers engaged deeply with interconnected challenges:
Climate & Health: The intersection of climate change and disease was a recurring thread — how extreme weather, displacement, and environmental shifts aggravate health risks and challenge existing systems.
Health System Resilience: Multiple sessions raised the point that disease-specific investments, while essential, cannot replace foundational capacity. Strengthening primary care, community health, supply chains, and workforce development is critical.
Global Health Security & Financing: New reports, such as the GPMB (Global Preparedness Monitoring Board) launch at WHS2025, underscore the precarious balance of health security investments the world faces. The report calls for three pillars of action: bolstering primary care, empowering communities, and protecting health workforces.
Equity & Multilateralism: Many speakers emphasized that fragmentation in health diplomacy, funding, and politics undermines progress. The notion of “taking responsibility” implies shared stakes and collaborative governance across geographies.
Where EPCON’s Vision Fits In
As I observed and reflected on these themes, two convictions at EPCON feel ever more validated:
We must amplify health system strengthening
The conversations in Berlin reinforced that disease silos (e.g., NTDs, TB, maternal health) cannot be addressed sustainably without robust systems underneath. Too much energy is lost when interventions operate in parallel rather than synergistically. Strengthening labs, data systems, workforce and logistics is not a side project — it is central.
We have a strategic opportunity in the momentum around TB
The global dialogue, funding mechanisms, and networks assembled around TB are among the most mature and structured in global health. We believe these frameworks, tools, and partnerships can be leveraged to address adjacent challenges — NTDs, climate-related disease shifts, emerging pathogens — rather than reinventing from scratch.
In short: we can build on what already works. The communities, infrastructure, surveillance systems, and policy corridors mobilized for TB can serve as springboards for broader health resilience.
So my message coming out of WHS2025 is: yes, much has been said — on climate, NTDs, system resilience — and rightly so. But the real test is in integration and application. Let us not just talk across verticals, but actively forge bridges.