Germany’s Responsibility in Global Health Policy: New Event Series by GHHG at the German Bundestag
On September 4, 2025, the Global Health Hub Germany launched a new series of events for policymakers on topics related to global health policy.
The first event was held in collaboration with UNITE – Parliamentarians Network for Global Health and was titled “Introduction to Global Health Architecture and Financing.” Over the coming months, eight sessions are planned in total, each focusing on current challenges, structures, and approaches to solutions in the field of global health.
Embedding Global Health in the Political Sphere
With the new event series, the Global Health Hub Germany aims to further integrate global health issues into the work of political decision makers. It is specifically targeted at the working-level in politics: scientific staff of members of parliament, staff within parliamentary groups, and representatives from various ministries. They are to be provided with a space to engage in-depth with the complexity of global health questions and to exchange ideas on possible political action.
Especially in the current legislative period, in which there is no dedicated Subcommittee for Global Health, the Hub considers it important to make these topics visible and actionable nonetheless. It follows developments with a strong non-governmental voice and brings expertise into the political debate.
Global Achievements and New Challenges
A central element of the kick-off event was the input of Dr. Christoph Benn, Director for Global Health Diplomacy at the Joep Lange Institute in Geneva. He painted an impressive picture of past achievements in international health cooperation: increasing life expectancy, declining child mortality, and significantly improved access to medicines in many parts of the world.
He emphasized how effective bilateral and multilateral approaches can be — for example, the Global Fund, which, through market-shaping measures, has achieved substantial price reductions for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria medications. The resulting savings in the billions demonstrate that investments in global health bring measurable and sustainable benefit.
Germany’s Special Role
Dr. Benn also reminded the audience of Germany’s international responsibility in this area. Especially at a time when other countries are reducing their contributions, global health should continue to retain a high priority as one of the most effective investments in international cooperation. Global health uniquely connects protecting the population in Germany with the aim of enabling a safe livelihood and future perspective for all people worldwide.
New Paths of Health Financing
Another focus of the presentation was on financing mechanisms for global health. Dr. Benn presented various models — from voluntary contributions to catalytic funding to earmarked taxes. All of these instruments are necessary to ensure effective and equitable health care worldwide, even in the face of shrinking public resources.
For those who want to delve more deeply into questions of global health architecture and financing, further information and food for thought can be found in the catalyst dialogue papers of Global Health Hub Germany:
How can health for all be financed in times of constrained resources?
What should a global health architecture look like that is fair to everyone?