Several health care workers wearing face masks and yellow protective suits acknowledge applause outside the Hospital de Barcelona on April 13, 2020 in Barcelona, during a national lockdown to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
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Bring on the Big Wins for Global Health in 2023

January 19, 2023

We reached out to some key global health experts to ask them what big global health wins they would love to see in 2023—and what issues or topics are deserving of more media attention and research dollars.

Here's a sampling of what they had to say: 

Image of a nurse caring for a tiny baby in the pediatric ward of the Partners In Health supported Rwinkwavu Hospital in south-eastern Rwanda next to a stylized quote from Roopa Dhatt: “As governments meet for the September 2023 UN High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, we ask them to advance both gender equality and UHC by committing to invest in safe and decent jobs for women health workers and ending unpaid work in health systems.”

A young patient in the pediatric ward of the Partners In Health supported Rwinkwavu Hospital in south-eastern Rwanda; Rwandans pay only $2 a year for health insurance. Image: William Campbell/Corbis via Getty

A Congolese refugee child displays his cholera vaccine card in Kyangwali refugee settlement in western Uganda, next to a stylized quote by Gavin Yamey, director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health based in the Duke Global Health Institute: “I believe one of the biggest wins for global health in 2023 would be for routine childhood vaccination programs to get back on track. The COVID-19 pandemic was hugely disruptive to these programs, and millions of children have missed doses of routine vaccine

A Congolese refugee child displays his cholera vaccine card in Kyangwali refugee settlement in western Uganda, May 3, 2018. Alda Tsang/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty

Image of a girl wearing a red flowered dress and holding a water vessel on a dried-out, cracked field in Satkhira, Bangladesh, next to a stylized quote from Michele Barry, director of Stanford's Global Health Institute: "More attention towards how climate impacts emerging diseases, deforestation, and urbanization are obvious issues, but there needs to be more research into other global health ramifications of floods, droughts, and extreme weather events.”

A girl walks into a dried-out, cracked field after collecting drinking water from a pond in Satkhira, Bangladesh on March 27, 2022. Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto via Getty

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wearing a purple outfit next to a quote box of stylized text that says "I'd like to see measurable progress to reform global pandemic preparedness and response, including a concise, action-oriented political declaration from the UNGA High-Level meeting, and the creation of a leader-level council to break the cycle of neglect that follows deadly outbreaks."

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia and former co-chair of The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Image: Courtesy

A picture of a female production engineer in a white lab coat working in Afrigen's R&D lab in Cape Town, South Africa, next to a stylized quote from Madhukar Pai that reads: "A big win would be the African region manufacturing their own vaccines. COVID-19 proved that the trickle-down, charity-based global health model doesn’t work. Global South countries want justice and fairness, not charity; they want to be self-sufficient. Rich nations must back this vision as supportive allies."

Production engineer Dominique Vankerwel works in Afrigen's R&D lab in Cape Town, South Africa, December 10, 2021. Kristin Palitza/picture alliance via Getty

Image at top

Heath care workers  acknowledge applause outside the Hospital de Barcelona on April 13, 2020 in Barcelona, during a national lockdown to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Image: Josep LAGO / AFP via Getty