World Health Summit 2025 Side Event “Roundtable on the Future of Global Health Finance”

Miriam Meier
Nov 7
2 min read

On October 14, 2025, the Infectious Disease Alliance (IDA), under the Global Health Finance Coalition (GHFC), in collaboration with AHF Healthcare Foundation, NGO Nest, AMREF Health Africa, the Global Health Technology Coalition, and the Nordic Wellbeing Academy, hosted a roundtable discussion in Berlin.

The global health landscape is shifting rapidly, with health systems under pressure and traditional funding models no longer sufficient. As aid declines and public resources fall short, the Global Health Finance Coalition (GHFC) convened a strategic roundtable during the World Health Summit (WHS) 2025 to address critical challenges in global health financing.

Based on stakeholder research and Advisory Board consultations, GHFC identified four key gaps: limited civil society participation in financing decisions, insufficient equity for LMICs and marginalized groups, fragmented long-term advocacy, and weak translation of innovative financing models into systemic health gains.

GHFC’s approach focuses on advocacy, accountability, and inclusivity, connecting global finance discussions with local realities. The WHS 2025 side event sought to:

Refine GHFC’s strategic framework for equitable and sustainable health financing.
Strengthen advocacy and financial literacy within the health community.
Identify scalable, innovative financing models that enhance system resilience.
Foster collaboration across public, private, and philanthropic sectors to align resources for greater impact.

Keynote Speakers Included

Guilherme Faviero - AHF Global Public Health Institute
James W Bair - Baraka Impact Finance
Boniface Mbuthia - AMREF Health Africa

Breakout Groups

Two breakout groups discussed key themes around strengthening health systems and financing.

Advocacy & Partnerships Group: Focused on aligning infrastructure and health goals, scaling up innovative finance, and repositioning primary health care as central to resilience. They emphasized capacity building, transparency, and citizen engagement, noting that coordination, not funding is the main challenge. The group called for sustainable, investment-oriented financing beyond traditional grants.
Health Finance Literacy Group: Highlighted communication gaps between finance and public health sectors and proposed developing shared tools and a glossary to improve understanding. They stressed capacity building for business modeling and cost analysis, and urged engagement with insurers and the private sector. Cross-sector collaboration was seen as essential and timely.

Roundtable Discussion

Following the breakout groups, the roundtable discussion called for a long-term, prevention-focused vision while addressing current health challenges. Participants discussed using social impact bonds and blended finance to attract new health investments. They emphasized developing shared literacy and educational initiatives to bridge the cultural and linguistic gap between finance and health sectors. The role of insurers in shifting from treatment to prevention was highlighted, with a need to better understand what drives their investment decisions in health promotion.

Key Takeaways of the Event

Data and evidence are critical for progress, but information fragmentation remains a major barrier.
Public-private collaboration is essential yet still underdeveloped.
There is a pressing need for a shared language between the finance and health sectors.
Health finance literacy requires systematic investment to build capacity across both fields.
Short-term grants should transition toward sustainable, investment-based funding models.
Insurance companies and impact investors are underutilized assets in the global health financing ecosystem.
Advocacy efforts must include a broader range of voices—from citizens to private sector actors.
The principle of solidarity should remain central to any future model of global health financing.