Helsinki Policy Forum, Health Working Group, 7th September 2022

On the 7th of September the first physical meeting of the HPF’s Health Working Group (HWG) was held in Helsinki, hosted by the Ministry of Health & Social Affairs of Finland. Representatives from eleven countries and international organisations participated in the discussions.This meeting explored two key questions:

• How are efforts to strengthen pandemic preparedness developing and are there opportunities to improve cooperation both within the MENA region and with Europe?

• How can Europe and the MENA region work together more effectively to meet the health needs of those in conflict zones and fragile states?

Participants expressed concern that while a great deal of learning had occurred from Covid-19, the world is still ill-prepared for another pandemic. Talks on a Pandemic Treaty are making progress but are far from finalised. A priority needs to be improving mechanisms for surveillance to better enable the timely reporting of incidents.The HWG was first established following a High-Level meeting of Ministers of Health on the 19th of April 2021. It brings together senior health officials from across the Gulf-MENA region and Europe to identify how health cooperation between states can be enhanced.