Prominent guests including the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, assembled at Fanehallen at Akershus Fortress for the half day symposium (full event program) led by moderator, Cathrine M. Lofthus, Secretary General at the Ministry of Health and Care Services. In a Lancet article published just prior to the symposium, Julio Frenk, Tore Godal, Ocravio Gomez-Dantes and Jonas Gahn Store laid out six lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic:
- Pandemics are becoming more common as a result of unsustainable practices, so all countries should strengthen their commitment to sustainable development
- When dealing with a pandemic, it is necessary to supersede the false dilemma between public health and economic goals, both of which must be pursued in a synergistic way
- The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed and magnified social inequities, which make it necessary to build specific mitigation interventions into preparedness plans
- National leadership is crucial in the response to a global public health threat
- Regional collaboration promotes health security
- No local response to a pandemic can be effective without global solutions
Frenk, Julio, Tore Godal, Octavio Gómez-Dantés, and Jonas Gahr Store. "A reinvigorated multilateralism in health: lessons and innovations from the COVID-19 pandemic." The Lancet (2022).
UiO’s own Katerini Storeng, Associate Professor at the Centre for Development and the Environment was invited to reflect on challenges and opportunities in researching global health. Katerini presented her top three priorities for a reinvigorated global health research system, which included:
- broader scope
- research diversity and
- greater research independence
For further details, see a full description of the wish list at The Collective Blog.
