2023: A quantum leap for the Global Health Hub Germany

Our network continued to grow last year and now has over 2,000 members from eight stakeholder groups. More than 300 members are particularly active and are involved in one of our twelve Hub Communities, working together to develop solutions on topics of their choice. A new addition is the Hub Community on Pandemic Preparedness and Biosecurity. Collaboration in the Communities is increasingly producing concrete results, including own Community Papers on urban health and mental health as well as a kaleidoscope of the experiences of migrants in the German healthcare system. To further promote productivity, we have also offered two training workshops: a writing training for policy papers for maximum impact and a Community Manager training specifically for our Hub Community managers. 

A particular highlight was our annual Global Health Talk conference on 12 and 13 June at the Umweltforum in Berlin. Over 200 global health experts discussed current topics such as health financing, climate and health and urban health. Almost 100 participants joined the event virtually (a summary can be found here). The preceding Community Day was also a great success, with twelve Community meetings and 123 participants. Our evaluation showed that Community Day had broadened their perspectives. We also worked intensively on our annual Community Theme, Planetary Health, which laid the basis for our stakeholder mapping of planetary health actors. Building on this, ten Hub Communities presented the interconnections between their work and planetary health at a joint workshop at the end of November. A new Working Group on Planetary Health will also begin its work in 2024, developing a call to action for planetary health.  

The Hub Management Team is pleased to report that our 2023 member survey showed a high level of satisfaction (7.3 out of 10) with the Hub's work and management team.

Every year, our steering committee sets politically relevant key topics. For 2023, the members of the steering committee chose "Global Health Financing" and "Digital Health Data Governance". Together with Healthy DEvelopments, we held Catalyst Dialogues on both topics with experts representing the diversity of perspectives of the Hub's stakeholders, including Dr Frances Baaba da-Costa Vroom, Dr Christoph Benn, Alexandrine Pirlot de Corbion, Prof. Dr Jayati Ghosh, Tom Hart, Lesley-Anne Long, Dr Christian Möhlen and Dr Riaz Tanoli.  We have compiled the results of the impulse dialogues in policy briefs.  

The policy brief on digital health data governance was launched on the sidelines of the World Health Summit (WHS) in mid-October. The response was very positive, both at the WHS and online. On social media, posts about the policy brief generated up to 4,900 impressions and 80 likes. In addition, media such as Heise Online, Ärztezeitung and Health & Care Mangagement Magazin reported on the policy paper. 

The policy brief on global health financing was presented at the Global Health Talk in June. Within two months, the policy brief had over 1,000 page views and over 800 downloads. The brief was also covered in Ärzteblatt and Tagesspiegel Background. 

We have not only made the results of our policy briefs available to the specialist public, but have also taken them into the political arena and discussed them in advance at Roundtables and Parliamentary Evenings with representatives of the German government, the German Bundestag and non-state actors. However, the Hub's work does not end with the publication of our policy papers. We monitor new developments on the topics covered in our policy papers, provide recommendations and set new impulses. I In November, together with our strategic partner, the Centre for Planetary Health Policy (CPHP), we organised a Parliamentary Breakfast on Climate and Health (last year's focus) in preparation for the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28). 

The Hub aims to strengthen the bridge between non-governmental actors and the government on global health. In this way, the voices of our GHHG members, including those who are often unheard, can contribute their perspectives and expertise. The interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral nature of our more than 2,000 members provides policymakers with a unique opportunity to access a wide range of expertise and benefit from multiple perspectives.

In March, together with the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) and the Federal Foreign Office (AA), we organised a dialogue event between policymakers and non-state actors on the International Pandemic Accord (further information). 

In April, we submitted a statement as non-governmental dialogue partner on the background paper on the transformation area "Human Wellbeing and Capabilities, Social Justice" as part of the German Sustainable Development Strategy. The outcomes were presented in a dialogue format with the Federal Chancellery, BMG, BMBF and BMAS (further information). 

In addition, the Hub is an agenda-setter for global health, offering member queries as input for German policymakers. In 2023, we offered a survey to identify our members’ priorities and expectations regarding the UN High-Level meetings on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Tuberculosis and Pandemic Preparedness and Response. The results were shared with policymakers at the Federal Foreign Office, the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations in New York, BMZ and BMG, as well as representatives of non-governmental organisations. 

One of this year's highlights was the launch of the Dutch Global Health Hub in the autumn. We're delighted that other countries are adopting the unique platform of the Global Health Hub Germany. 

Our bi-weekly newsletter informs every other week about news from the Hub, events, jobs and other global health news. Since the relaunch two years ago, we have received a lot of positive feedback from our Hub members and policymakers. We already have 2,500 subscribers and an impressive 42% opening rate. Our website www.globalhealthhub.de is also becoming more relevant, with an average of 3,000 visitors per month in 2023. 

We're making the work of our members and the Hub more visible through social media. Between the end of 2022 and November 2023, we've increased our Twitter/X followers from 2,100 to 2,500 and our LinkedIn followers from 3,000 to 4,800. Our posts get up to 16,000 impressions. Also in 2023, we have uploaded 15 videos to our YouTube channel.