Dear Jules and Meena,
Jules cites the 2006 paper 'A 15th grand challenge [for the Gates Foundation] for global public health', by Tikki Pang, Muir Gray and Tim Evans. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(06)68050-1/abstract
“The challenge is to ensure that everyone in the world can have access to clean, clear, knowledge.”
She notes that 'Twenty years on, this challenge not only remains unresolved, it feels more urgent, and more complex, than ever.'
You both ask: "What responsibilities and opportunities does this moment place on us as a global community committed to equity in health information?"
This is partly answered by the global consultation that HIFA undertook in 2023 and 2024 as part of our commitment as an NGO in official relations with the World Hea;th Organization.
Our responsibility as a global social movement is to promote financial and political commitment for the goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information.
Financial commitment remains absent. It would indeed be wonderful if the Gates Foundation would commitm to universal access. I have been in contact with one of the authors of the 2006 paper and I have been told that the Gates Foundation did not respond to the paper. To date, no funding agency or government has committed to work towards universal access.
HIFA has secured official endorsement for universal access from more than 400 supporting organisations. We also have supporting policy statements from two major global stakeholder groups: the world's doctors (World Medical Association) and the world's library and information professionals (International Federation of Library Associations).
HIFA has been advocating since 2004 for WHO to explicitly champion the goal of universal access. Twenty years later, the central message of our global consultation 2023/2024 is that WHO should explicitly champion universal access and convene stakeholders to develop a global strategy for its realisation. HIFA stands ready to support.
We have a collaboration plan with WHO for 2025-2027 where we aim to facilitate these next steps and you can review it here:
https://www.hifa.org/projects/hifa-official-relations-who
and here:
https://publicspace.who.int/sites/GEM/official_relations_details.aspx?id...
Jules also specifically discussed HIFA social media and I shall reply separately. In the meantime, on behalf of HIFA a huge thank you to Jules, Ben (coordinator) and all the social media team for their valuable inputs.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org