Objectives and Scope of the Geneva Health Forum

The Geneva Forum: Towards Global Access to Health brings together on an equal basis all actors involved in access to health – including international, national and local organizations; government agencies; the private sector; hospitals; universities; civil society; and most importantly those who need care. It provides an interactive and dynamic platform for critical reflexion on the complexity of global access to health.

Under the flags of equity, partnership, and capacity building, it strives to link policies and guidelines to actual practice in the field. Combining scientific rigour and powerful testimonies, the Geneva Health Forum aims to provide integrated approaches and responses to global health challenges. Geneva, headquarters of numerous international organizations active in the health sector, provides a unique environment for this event.

Why the Geneva Health Forum?

• The Forum responds to the need to address ‘Global Access to Health’ on a regular basis in an international setting
• Emphasis is placed on giving an equal voice to all actors in the field of global access to health, including the private sector and civil society, as well as the development sector (multi-sector approach)
• Particular attention is given to linking policy to practice and vice versa, providing a think-tank for concrete and adapted solutions
• Independence from any single organization allows for neutrality and freedom in the programme
• Special effort is exerted to sponsor participants from low-income and lower-middle-income countries to join the Forum
• The "Marketplace" of the Forum offers a fertile ground for networking

The Geneva Health Forum is a European and international platform for all major actors in global access to health to meet regularly and aims to increase its potential as a mobilizing force for the promotion of global access to health, due to its location in Geneva (deemed the ‘world capital of health’) and since no other international event of this kind is held in Europe. Focusing on innovation, the Forum places special emphasis on new approaches and on new perspectives on improving global access to health. The Geneva Health Forum incarnates the spirit of a multi-stakeholder approach to solving problems in global access to health and stands firmly by its policy of having all actors participate in the Forum on equal footing.

Format

The Geneva Health Forum strives to create the circumstances that produce innovative approaches to global access to health. This edition will focus on sessions which tackle controversial issues by means of debates and panel discussions, offering maximum interaction with participants; create out-of-the-box thinking, by seeking new perspectives from unorthodox points of view; cover policy issues through (un)expected encounters, by bringing together the major policy-influencing actors and creating the dialogues that never seem to happen; produce the state of the art in global access to health through sessions that give updates on current issues, report on new developments in specific fields, and provide demonstrative case studies and field experiences; and finally host practical workshops, which aim at building specific skills. The general format includes the following:

• Plenary and Parallel Sessions
  Plenary sessions, which bring all conference participants together under broad conference themes. These sessions range from presentations and questions by the audience to panel debates. Parallel sessions, more specific in thematic focus, can range from debates and roundtables to standard presentations with questions from the audience to workshops.
• Poster Presentations and Free Communications
  Poster presentations will take place for all posters selected. These presentations run parallel to an evening event at the conference. Free communication sessions include brief presentations on several projects concerning specific topics and are followed by questions or debates. These two types of presentations are based on submission of abstracts.
• Marketplace
  The Geneva Health Forum Marketplace offers an open and convivial area where numerous organizations are present at booths or tables. This area is ideal for networking, for meeting the main actors in global access to health, and for presenting one's own projects. The coffee breaks of the forum are held in this area. Click here for more information on the Marketplace.