Hub Community Annual Theme 2024/2025: Communities address Global Health in Conflict Settings
How can health systems stay resilient when conflict shatters the very structures that hold them together?
That’s the question the Communities of the Global Health Hub Germany took on this past year — choosing “Global Health in Conflict Settings” as their annual cross-community theme.
With over 120 million forcibly displaced people worldwide and millions more living in fragile conflict zones, the intersection of conflict and health is one of today’s most pressing global challenges. Collapsing health systems, soaring maternal and child mortality, infectious disease outbreaks, and mental health crises are all stark realities in these settings. Yet, as the Hub’s newly launched Policy Brief makes clear, there are scalable and cost-effective solutions.
Over recent months, a dedicated working group from across the Hub’s Communities came together to collect evidence-based insights, best practices from the field, and perspectives from frontline responders. The result is a set of actionable recommendations to help protect vulnerable populations and strengthen healthcare systems in fragile contexts — with a clear message to German and European policymakers: bold, sustained action is urgently needed.
Why does this matter for Germany and Europe?
Health crises in conflict regions fuel forced migration, putting pressure on asylum systems and local communities. Epidemics in fragile regions can disrupt supply chains and trade, threatening economic stability. And as a key supporter of WHO and international health efforts, Germany can lead the way in closing funding gaps and fostering more resilient, equitable health systems.
To bring these recommendations to life, the Hub’s Global Health Talk Day on 10 July 2025 featured an interactive simulation exercise, developed in close collaboration with the Department for Mental Health and Non-Communicable Diseases, World Health Organization Geneva (WHO). Participants stepped into the role of a Regional Health Committee in a fictional conflict-affected region Zavara — navigating complex trade-offs, limited resources, and high-stakes decisions based directly on real-world best practices and the Policy Brief’s core insights.
The session concluded with a lively panel discussion moderated by Dr. Fahmy Hanna (WHO), joined by Dr. Franziska Laporte Uribe (Hub Working Group), Dr. Hanna Kaade (German Red Cross), and Thorsten Schroer (CADUS). Together, they shared practical lessons from the ground and debated how evidence and experience must translate into cross-sectoral, coordinated responses — with mental health, local workforce support, and taking youth’s perspective into account all playing a vital role.
This year’s theme showed once again how the Hub’s Communities can turn collective knowledge into practical tools and concrete policy impact. As conflicts persist and new crises emerge, the Hub’s commitment to working across communities, disciplines, and borders remains stronger than ever — because when crisis hits, standing together makes all the difference.
📄 Read the Policy Brief here: Strengthening Global Health in Conflict Settings (PDF)
▶️ The Video of the full session will follow shortly
🔍 Take a look at the simulation exercise here: Critical Choices – Global Health in Crisis Edition (PDF)
If you would like to use the simulation exercise yourself, please contact Katrin Würfel via Katrin.wuerfel@globalhealthhub.de or info@globalhealthhub.de