Global health: a European Joint Action to maximise the Impact of the EU Global Health Strategy

About JA GHI

• The Joint Action on Global Health JA-GHI, co-funded by the Health Programme of the European Union (EU), was established in October 2023 for two years in the context of the revised EU Global Health Strategy: Better health for all in a changing world which was introduced in November 2022 by the European Commission. On behalf of the Belgian Presidency, the EU Council conclusions on the EU Global Health Strategy were endorsed.
• The European Union’s leadership has played a key role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide through the Team Europe approach, with the EU and its Member States acting within their respective competences. In the context of the implementation of the new EU Global Health Strategy, better coordination to strengthen this leadership and its visibility is essential to maximize the collective impact of such EU contributions to global health and to shape a new global health order based on our fundamental values.
• The objective of the Joint Action on Global Health is to strengthen this EU leadership by putting in place rolling mechanisms for closer coordination and synergies between the EU institutions and its Member States, which will at the same time respect corresponding competences and facilitate EU decision-making process through established statutory channels.
• To that end, a dynamic mapping mechanism of key measures and funding of both the EU and its Member States is being established to better identify, coordinate and monitor ongoing actions in relation to the EU Global Health Strategy priorities, as well as to ensure optimal synergy with national strategies. Likewise, JA GHI develops tools to facilitate information and intelligence sharing between the EU and Member States in global health fora (i.e., Brussels, Member States capitals, Geneva and New York), proposing improvements to the existing coordination platforms and optimizing IT tools for upstream support to key decisions, ensuring the EU speaks with one voice. A comprehensive communication plan is being developed by the Joint Action to strengthen the EU’s external communication so that the contributions of the Union and its Member States to global health are well acknowledged and understood. The Team Europe approach is promoted as a brand for EU action in global health. Finally, a Member States‘ suggestions forum will be organised to anticipate and discuss important topics and new challenges for global health, to support the EU positioning on such topics ahead of key international Global Health meetings.

Facts

• 39 institutions involved
• 24 European countries involved, including 22 EU Members States, Norway and Ukraine
• Duration of the JA GHI is 24 months (started from October 2023)
• Coordinated by France (Ministry of Labour, Health and Solidarities)

CZ involvement

• The Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic leads together with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports of the Netherlands the Work Package 6 (WP6)– Information- and intelligence-sharing among EU and Member States in the focal points dealing with global health (Brussels, Member State capitals, Geneva and New York). Moreover, the Czech Republic is participating in WP1-4 (Project management and coordination, JA GHI project communication and dissemination, JA GHI evaluation and impact assessment, JA GHI Sustainability) and WP8 Suggestions Forum on improved coordination.
• WP6 aims at facilitating information and intelligence sharing among the EU and Member States in the many focal points dealing with global health (Brussels, Member State capitals, Geneva and New York, or elsewhere whenever relevant), with increased health capacities and/or expertise in the latter two. This will build on an ongoing initiative of the 2022 Czech Presidency of the European Council to address this need.
• Specific WP6 objectives are as follows:
  • Identifying needs for more efficient intelligence and information sharing between capitals, Brussels, Geneva, and New York.
  • Developing informal means for pro-active information and intelligence sharing, with a focus on a) important meetings, b) key takeaways and c) strategic messages/lines to take, to better prepare for negotiations in Geneva and New York – where the benefit of quick and informal information-sharing is greatest, and to facilitate alignment between negotiation processes.
  • Enabling further IT tools development for sustainable, real-time information and intelligence sharing to be used by Member States’ representatives in capitals, Brussels, Geneva and New York as well as the European Commission (EC) and European External Action Service (EEAS).

More information

• For more information, please see the below Leaflet, follow @GlobalHealthJA on Platform X or visit the JA GHI website.

This project is co-funded by the European Union, under the EU4 Health programme  –  Grant agreement No. 101140722.