Parliamentary Leadership Takes Centre Stage in Manila: Key Outcomes from the UNITE Global Summit 2026
Over 160 parliamentarians, global health leaders, civil society representatives and participants from more than 40 countries gathered in Manila, The Philippines, on August 3rd and 4th for the UNITE Global Summit 2026.
The UNITE Global Summit (UGS) is the flagship event of UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health, a non-partisan global network of over 550 current and former members of parliaments, congresses, and senates from 120 countries, dedicated to advancing science-informed health policymaking worldwide. Founded in 2017 by Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite, UNITE equips legislators with the evidence, peer networks, and the support they need to champion health and translate international commitments into national law.
From Berlin to Manila
The previous UNITE Global Summit in 2024 was held in Berlin, on the margins of the World Health Summit and culminated in a global statement backing the World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, with UNITE members reaffirming their commitment to equitable access and stronger pandemic preparedness ahead of WHA78.
UGS 2026 builds on the legacy of previous Summits, taking the conversation beyond Europe for the first time to the Asia-Pacific region, where the Summit was hosted by UNITE’s Chapter Chair, Senator Pia Cayetano of the Philippines. Being home to more than half the world's population and some of the most dynamic health systems on the planet, Asia set the scene for urgent conversations on the future of equitable global health.
Among those present in Manila was Hon. Sascha van Beek, Member of the German Bundestag and UNITE member, whose participation reflected Germany's ongoing engagement with multilateral health leadership at a moment when the political case for sustained ODA investment must be made loudly and repeatedly in national legislatures.
What Was Discussed
Over two days at the Marriott Grand Ballroom, parliamentarians engaged in policy workshops, parliamentary inquiries, and interactive sessions on a broad range of health priorities including health financing, pandemic preparedness and response, tobacco control and lung health, infectious diseases, mental health, harm reduction, and climate and health.
The Global Leadership Dialogue brought together the heads of the Pandemic Fund, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Health Organization to examine how parliamentary action can mobilise and sustain health investment. A Parliamentary Inquiry co-hosted with Gavi examined the role of legislators in driving sustainable immunization financing, directly addressing the reality that 20 million children missed at least one vaccine dose in 2024. A dedicated session on climate and health, co-hosted with the WHO Youth Council, brought young leaders into direct dialogue with legislators on the policy action needed to protect communities from the compounding health consequences of a warming world.
Tobacco control and lung health were among the summit's defining themes with sessions generating the kind of frank, evidence-based exchanges that demanded concrete follow-up well beyond Manila.
Landmark Outcomes
UGS 2026 delivered a series of institutional milestones marking a new chapter for UNITE.
UNITE officially launched its Strategy 2026–2030: Health as a Political Choice, setting out the network's vision and priorities for the next five years, presented by Executive Director, Dr. Guilherme Duarte.
The inaugural UNITE Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Martin Chungong, Honorary Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, in recognition of a career dedicated to advancing parliamentary democracy and health diplomacy worldwide.
UNITE signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Parliamentarians for Climate Network (P4C), formalising joint action on the climate-health nexus. P4C is a global parliamentary network of current and former parliamentarians committed to promoting environmental sustainability and climate resilience, founded by UNITE Ambassador from Morocco, Hon. Dr. Ibtissame Azzaoui.
UNITE Connect was officially launched at the summit, a first-of-its-kind digital platform and App build for the network to enable peer exchange, resource sharing, and year-round collaboration on global health.
The platform hosts Communities of Practice on specific health topics, bringing parliamentarians together with expert partners for continued dialogue and action. The inaugural Community of Practice, launched in partnership with the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, will provide UNITE Members with resources, webinars and tools to tobacco control, a fitting first, given the centrality of tobacco and lung health to the discussions in Manila and the clear appetite among legislators for structured follow-up action on the topic.
The Health Policy Trends Survey 2027 was launched by the Global Health Policy Lab (GHPL) in partnership with the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and UNITE, feeding a new cycle of evidence building to assess the challenges and solutions facing health policymakers. This survey builds on the Health Policy Trend Report 2026, the findings of which were presented during the Summit.
The summit culminated in the signing of a Political Declaration, committing UNITE member parliamentarians to concrete action on health financing, pandemic preparedness, immunization, climate and health, and health system resilience.
Why This Matters for Germany
Germany is one of the world's largest ODA donors and a cornerstone of multilateral health financing, contributing to the Global Fund, Gavi, the Pandemic Fund, and WHO. At a moment when development assistance budgets face political scrutiny across Europe, the work of parliamentarians in making the case for sustained global health investment has never been more important. UNITE exists to champion political will, and German parliamentarians like Hon. Sascha van Beek are a vital part of that effort.
Looking Ahead
UNITE will be co-hosting a side event at the World Health Summit in Berlin on October 11th-13th.
Get in touch with the UNITE Secretariat to connect in Berlin and beyond unitenetwork(at)unitenetwork.org.
We invited UNITE to share the most imporant outcomes and insights from their Global Summit in Manila. The views expressed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Health Hub Germany.
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