Unitaid’s climate and health strategy 2023-2027
Climate and health
Le Conseil d’administration approuve de nouveaux domaines d’activité ambitieux pour Unitaid lors de sa 43e réunion
Brasilia, 22 November 2023 – Hosted by Brazil, one of Unitaid’s founding members, the 43rd session of Unitaid’s Executive Board concluded with decisions that chart out ambitious new areas of work that reaffirm Unitaid’s role as a pathfinder and innovator while adapting to today’s global health challenges.
Progress towards meeting key 2030 global health targets is off-track as needs outstrip available resources. At the status quo, ending the AIDS, Tuberculosis, and malaria epidemics, as well as preventable deaths of newborns and children under five, are looking increasingly unlikely, while at the same time, climate disasters and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic are straining global health programs.
Against this backdrop, Unitaid is looking at innovative solutions that are needed now more than ever to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable populations and enable the global response to continue progressing toward 2030 targets.
In support of these efforts, the Board reiterated its support for Unitaid’s resource mobilization efforts, approved a new area for intervention to enable access to monoclonal antibodies to treat and prevent infectious disease in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), and approved a new climate and health strategy to contribute to resilient health systems centered around climate-smart health products.
Monoclonal antibodies can treat or prevent a wide range of diseases – and are already revolutionizing modern medicine in high-income countries. They also hold great potential to transform how public health needs are addressed in LMICs. But this transformative technology is not yet a reality in many LMICs, due to high cost and other access barriers. Unitaid has identified opportunities to address these barriers and help establish viable business models, enabling access to monoclonal antibodies to treat and prevent infectious diseases in LMICs.
“Despite the global health challenges of today, I see real grounds for optimism thanks to the generosity of our host, Brazil, and other donors who remain committed to delivering quality health innovations,” said Dr Philippe Duneton, Executive Director of Unitaid. “I am also encouraged by the Executive Board’s decision to approve Unitaid’s new area for intervention in monoclonal antibodies, given their transformative potential and promise in infectious diseases, children’s health, and pandemics. Today’s rising challenges demand ambitious solutions,” he added.
During the two-day session, the Board also voted to extend until end of 2025 the terms of current Executive Board Chair, Marisol Touraine, and Vice-Chair, Ambassador Cecilia Kiku Ishitani, ensuring continuity and stability in Unitaid’s leadership as the global health infrastructure continues to recover from the unforeseen impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were delighted to hold this year’s Executive Board meeting in Brasilia, where we were warmly welcomed. Critical decisions were taken which will support Unitaid to shape a more equitable and sustainable future,” said Ms. Touraine. “And I am grateful to the Board for their trust and confidence to extend my term as the Board Chair. I look forward to building upon the progress we made together over my last two terms and ensure Unitaid continues to succeed as a pioneer for equitable global health solutions.”
During her tenure as chair, Ms. Touraine helped to strengthen Unitaid’s governance and create greater transparency and inclusivity. Her strategic leadership of the Board during the COVID-19 pandemic brought clear guidance to the Secretariat and helped Unitaid adapt and evolve, demonstrating the relevance of its model and how it complements the work of other key global health players in delivering effective solutions.
The extended terms of the Chair and Vice-Chair will end at the closure of the December 2025 Executive Board meeting, and will align with the mid-term review of Unitaid’s 2023-2027 strategy.
Media contacts:
For more information and media requests:
Hervé Verhoosel
Head of Communications and Spokesperson
M: +33 6 22 59 73 54
Kyle Wilkinson,
Communications Officer
+41 79 445 17 45
The health products manufacturers support platform: Enhancing regional manufacturing of health technologies in Africa
Unitaid établit un partenariat avec Climate Action Accelerator
To accelerate progress on our climate commitments and make our work more sustainable, we are proud to partner with the Climate Action Accelerator (CAA). CAA is a non-profit organization that provides technical expertise to organizations to help reduce their carbon emissions, creating a global community to push for the race to zero.
CAA will support Unitaid to cut our emissions in half by 2030 or earlier and to reach net-zero by 2050. Partnering with CAA is part of our ongoing work to address the impacts of climate change on our work – and the impact of our work on the environment. The global health sector contributes 4.6% of the world’s carbon emissions, with a notable portion of these emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation and delivery of health products and services. Unitaid and our partners have a collective responsibility to reduce our own negative impacts on the environment and contribute to making the global health sector more sustainable.
Climate and health is a key priority in our 2023-2027 Strategy. We are working to introduce health products with lower environmental footprints and that support increased resilience for health systems to better adapt to a changing climate. We are also developing a dedicated climate and health strategy to be submitted for approval to the Executive Board in November 2023.
Edits: This article was edited on 28 November 2023 to correct the global health sector’s contribution to the world’s carbon emissions, which amount to 4.6% as per the 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change.
Media contact:
For more information and media requests:
Hervé Verhoosel
Head of Communications and Spokesperson
M: +33 6 22 59 73 54
Novel business models for accessible monoclonal antibodies for infectious diseases in LMICS: Multistakeholder meeting recommendations
La présidente du Conseil d’administration d’Unitaid appelle à l’action contre la tuberculose lors de la Réunion de haut niveau des Nations Unies
On 22 September, heads of state and leaders in global health came together at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis to get efforts to end TB back on track. The Chair of Unitaid’s Executive Board and former French Minister of Social Affairs and Health, Marisol Touraine, addressed the high-level delegation.
Her remarks are reproduced in full below.
Distinguished President of the General Assembly and Secretary General, Esteemed Director General of WHO, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor for me and a great responsibility to carry before you the hopes of all those who fight the daily battle against the scourge of tuberculosis: patients, health professionals, activists, scientists.
I want to carry the hope that the declaration this General Assembly will adopt will be rapidly implemented in tangible measures for the patients.
The hope that tuberculosis won’t be a one-day priority but will remain an everyday mobilization.
Now, if you allow me, I will use my privilege to speak in French.
[Translated from French]
The world is not sufficiently aware that tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease after Covid-19.
The situation is dramatic – just a few months of the pandemic were enough to undermine progress achieved over years of commitment: drug resistance is intensifying, prevention is inadequate and patients sometimes wait months for treatment. Every year, four million people are not screened because tests are still too complex and too expensive. Every day, more than 650 children die of tuberculosis. It’s unbearable because it is a disease of poverty, which strikes the poor and impoverishes the sick. But solutions do exist.
Our collective mobilization must therefore be equal to this challenge: we must guarantee equitable access to prevention and care. To this end, I welcome the General Assembly’s vision this year, which places the battle against tuberculosis alongside the two other health priorities of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and universal health coverage. On the condition, however, that these three debates converge and give rise to a common strategy because the battle against tuberculosis calls for a global and coherent vision, not only in scientific and medical terms, but also in social terms.
As President of Unitaid, I know that these challenges are within our grasp if we mobilize and innovate. Unitaid has become the leading multilateral funder of tuberculosis research and development. We work with multiple partners to identify innovations that will become concrete solutions for patients.
Our work has led to the launch of the first anti-tuberculosis drugs for children, and has helped to advance pediatric diagnosis of the disease by diversifying the type of samples used. We helped rapidly expand access to shorter, more effective preventive treatments by reducing their price by 80%. We have played a key role in obtaining technologies that can rapidly identify multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and we have funded massive studies and clinical trials that are transforming its treatment, making it easier to take and less toxic.
This progress can and must be continued and amplified. Unitaid will continue to play its part, but everyone must play theirs: so that patients can be treated quickly, and so that the cost of tests and treatments can be brought down.
This challenge calls for more innovation, more cooperation, more mobilization. The fight against tuberculosis must be at the heart of a strategy to strengthen the provision of primary healthcare. Partnerships are essential, and in this respect, I am delighted with the work carried out between Unitaid and WHO. Cooperation with civil society and affected communities is crucial if we are to reach to those who need our support more quickly. Just this week, Unitaid has launched a call for proposals to fight multidrug-resistant tuberculosis through affected communities.
We need an effective vaccine, and I salute the efforts of the Gates Foundation and others to advance this development. Real progress has been made in terms of access to medicines: I solemnly call on the pharmaceutical industry to go even further and to make a resolute commitment to making their innovations accessible to all, in particular by renouncing secondary patents, which will enable a quality generics market.
So, to all of you – excellencies, citizens, researchers and activists – I say: there is hope, success is within our reach.
Let’s make today the moment that marks change.