What did Wemos do for global health in the year that global health was under severe threat? We advocated the sharing of knowledge on Covid-19 vaccines, raised awareness on the risks of commerce in health, developed a new programme on health worker mobility in Europe, and much more. Check the highlights of our advocacy work in 2020 in our interactive overview.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has redirected the world’s attention to the importance of strong public health systems. Uganda, one of the Global Financing Facility’s (GFF) country cases, was also impacted by the virus outbreak. Our new factsheet – a second joint publication in the series with our partner CEHURD – provides an overview of updated information about the GFF in Uganda (since the first publication) and of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Health worker migration and mobility is more and more often facilitated by bilateral (country-to-country) agreements, involving public as well as private players. Many such agreements exist already, but the details of them are quite in-transparent and there is much unclarity about who negotiates such agreements. Wemos’ policy researcher global health Corinne Hinlopen and Remco van de Pas from Maastricht University wrote an analysis commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), of the existing status quo of such Skills Partnerships and formulated recommendations to improve their design and governance.
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In a broadcast of De Balie on December 7, Wemos’ global health advocate
Tom Buis conducted a debate with Pia Dijkstra (Member of Parliament D66) and Bart van Zijll Langhout (Vice President Janssen) about the worldwide distribution of a corona vaccine.
It was a much-needed optimistic headline in recent days: the developments around the pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s new COVID-19 vaccine are in the final stages. However, Pfizer has so far refused to give up the vaccine’s patent protection. This limits production and increases the price per vaccine – threatening access and distribution in low- and middle-income countries in particular. On November 20, Wemos’ global health advocate Tom Buis held an interview about this news in the Dutch programme EenVandaag.
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The Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated again that appropriately remunerated and sufficiently staffed, skilled, motivated and well-equipped health workers are the cornerstone of good integral quality health care. The Dutch Global Health Alliance invites you to a webinar that will discuss the importance of education and remuneration of health workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and how the Dutch government can contribute to these pillars.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has shown what happens when countries’ health systems are unable to keep up with their populations’ public health needs. Malfunctioning, weak health systems need to be strengthened into responsive, well-functioning, properly staffed and sustainably financed systems. Not only for acute public health crises – but also to achieve access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for everybody, everywhere. With our partners in the Health Systems Advocacy Partnership (HSAP), we have made a video that explains this interconnectedness and emphasises that strong health systems should be a political priority.
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Since the COVID-19 crisis has started, we have seen governments pressuring their own regulatory agencies to speed up the process of marketing authorisation. To make sure that this marketing authorisation process is done independently and transparently, the concept of accountability is key. Over the last year Wemos has conducted a qualitative analysis on the concept of accountability at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the perception hereof for different stakeholders in the process of marketing authorisation. Additionally, Wemos has looked into the risk of bias in Pre-Submission Activities (PSAs). This analysis lead to several policy recommendations in order to improve EMA’s accountability and to have better safeguards regarding risk of bias in PSAs.
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Today the court ruled that the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has to refund the excessive price the company charged for the drug Seroquel to the health insurance company Menzis. The exact amount has yet to be determined. It is the first time that a health insurance company in the Netherlands has sued a pharmaceutical company.
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For the last 10 years, the Netherlands has been pursuing an Aid & Trade agenda. It combines development in low and middle-income countries (Aid) with the interests of Dutch companies and investors in these countries (Trade). The idea is to create a win-win situation. Our paper ‘In the interest of Health for All?’ shows that this agenda is also being rolled out in Africa’s health sector, strengthening the private-for-profit sector in healthcare delivery. We wanted to know what the Aid & Trade (A&T) policy instruments look like and what their impact is on health systems and progress towards universal health coverage (UHC).
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