Stéphanie Seydoux was appointed French Ambassador for Global Health in 2018, helping design and implement the French Strategy for Global Health executed by French actors all around the world. Ambassador Seydoux represents France in various international organisations and was actively involved in in the 6th Global Fund Replenishment conference in Lyon, in October 2019. Ambassador Seydoux started her career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Afterwards she joined the ENA (Ecole nationale d’administration) and the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) in 2004. From 2007 to 2010, she was Head of Equality Promotion at the French Independent Equality Commission, before serving as Deputy Ambassador at the French Embassy in Kenya. Upon returning to France, she became Head of the French Women’s rights department from 2014 to 2017. Ambassador Seydoux is motivated to join the Council to bring attention to global health and help ensure it remains high on the political agenda.

From your perspective, why is engagement and awareness raising for global health important?

Health is a crucial dimension of our lives, quite obviously. What priority could be greater than to keep ourselves alive, and healthy? Yet, investments in health and even political prioritisation remain structurally insufficient worldwide. The global response to the Covid-19 pandemic reflected this underestimation of the risks. The pandemic has therefore provided a stern warning and tragic opportunity to re-invest in health, at national levels, and above all collectively, in order to ensure that we are better prepared and able to react more efficiently. This implies strengthening the multilateral governance of pandemic preparedness around the World Health Organization, and ensuring sustainable investments in health systems, the “first line of defence” against health crisis, as well as the foundations to build Universal Health Coverage and achieve SDG3. Solidarity and equity are crucial in this respect. Therefore, health is by essence a global issue. Individual health, national health policies, and multilateral health approaches are interconnected. This is why engagement and awareness raising for global health are key: they ensure that health remains high on the global agenda.

How are you committed to engaging in global health topics within your current professional role and activities?

As French Ambassador for Global Health, I have helped implement my government’s strong commitment to global health through our main priorities: the fight against infectious diseases, through our considerable investment in the Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in Unitaid, and in Gavi, the vaccine alliance; reinforcing the multilateral approach to global health issues via strengthening of WHO; ensuring an equitable response to the Covid-19 pandemic with the creation of the Access for Covid Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), to which France has contributed largely; supporting health systems and human resources for health in a Universal Health Coverage perspective, in particular through the WHO Academy established in Lyon with French support; promoting a “One Health” approach with the establishment of the One Health High Level Expert Panel and the Prezode Network. These priorities were convergent with those of the European Union, under French Presidency in the first half of 2022, and will be embodied in the next European Strategy for Global Health to be launched soon, an exciting perspective ahead!

How do you hope to achieve greater awareness and engagement for global health in your new role at the Virchow Foundation for Global Health? How can the Virchow Prize for Global Health help to increase awareness?

I was honoured to be appointed Co-Chair of the Council of the Virchow Foundation for Global Health. The role of the Council is to advise the Foundation, in particular on the process for designation of the laureate for the Virchow Prize for Global Health devolved to a high-level committee. The creation of this novel prestigious prize is excellent news as it will undoubtedly bring both attention and “lettres de noblesse” to high level engagement in Global Health.

Professor Dame Sally Davies is the Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance for the United Kingdom. Prior to this role, Dame Sally was the Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Adviser to the UK government from March 2011 to September 2019, having held the post on an interim basis since June 2010. She shares her motivation for joining the Council and raising awareness for global health.

From your perspective, why is engagement and awareness raising for global health important?

We need the public to start driving action. On antimicrobial resistance (AMR), public engagement does not currently match the scale of the threat, and this will directly impact our ability to change behaviours and policies,. Everyone has a role – leadership can come from the top, as well as from grass-roots, so we need to work together.

How are you committed to engaging in global health topics within your current professional role and activities?

As UK Special Envoy on AMR, I engage bilaterally and multilaterally to raise awareness and drive action on AMR. In 2021, I advised the UK’s G7 Presidency to secure bold commitments on AMR, and I am now honoured to be a Member of  the UN Global Leaders Group on AMR to accelerate action across all sectors. I co-lead the UK’s Investor Action on AMR initiative to galvanise the voices and influence of investors to support antibiotic sustainability. In my role as Master of Trinity College, I founded and launched The Trinity Challenge, a global initiative to use data to better respond to global health emergencies.

How do you hope to achieve greater awareness and engagement for global health in your new role at the Virchow Foundation for Global Health? How can the Virchow Prize for Global Health help to increase awareness?

I hope to collaborate with other members to share expertise and best practice, and inspire collaboration across sectors and countries on global health. Our collective network will hopefully be able to find new ways and new platforms of engaging; I also hope to inspire young people to follow in the footsteps of Virchow Prize winners.

Victor J. Dzau, MD is the President of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in the United States. In addition, he serves as Vice Chair of the National Research Council. Dr Dzau is Chancellor Emeritus and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University and the past President and CEO of the Duke University Health System. Previously, Dr Dzau was the Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine and Chairman of Medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), as well as Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Falk Cardiovascular Research Center at Stanford University. As a member of the Virchow Foundation for Global Health Council, Dr Dzau is motivated to help honour special achievements in global health towards elevating visibility of the field.

From your perspective, why is engagement and awareness raising for global health important?

Advancing global health requires collective action. Health threats, such as infectious disease crises, do not respect national borders. There is a need to respond effectively to global health threats – both urgent crises and ongoing health challenges. In addition, there is a rising challenge of increasing rates of NCDs and endemic infections (e.g., TB, HIV/AIDS).

Achieving global health and well-being is an important part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Individuals and governments have an important role to play. Stakeholders and decision-makers must act to promote the common good and renew their commitment to multilateralism and the multilateral system. Community engagement and trust is vital. Citizens can protect one another and demonstrate social and moral responsibility by acting in the best interests of all.

How are you committed to engaging in global health topics within your current professional role and activities?

From my childhood experience and life journey, beginning in post-war China, advancing global health and equity has always been a passion and commitment of mine.

Throughout my career, I have been active in numerous efforts to advance global health, including the founding of the Harvard BWH Division of Global Health Equity, the International Partnership in Innovation in Healthcare, the Duke Translational Medicine Institute, the Duke Global Health Institute, the Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School, and the Duke Institute for Health Innovation, and the founding of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovation.

In my current professional role, I engage in global health efforts in a number of ways, both in my capacity as President of the NAM and in my individual capacity. In both roles, I help shape and advise policies and initiatives that advance health globally.

At the National Academies, I helped design and launch the initiatives on Global Health Risk Framework; Global Health and Future Role of the US; Crossing the Global Quality Chasm and Human Genome Editing. I led the NAM’s response to COVID-19, which includes numerous committees, reports, consultations and communication on a range of issues including public health, vaccine allocation, health equity and mental health.

I have engaged with the global response to COVD-19 by providing leadership as a member of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, Co-chair of the G20 Scientific Expert Panel on Global Health Security, Advisor to the G20 High Level Independent Panel on Financing and a principal of the ACT-Accelerator which includes COVAX, the global collaboration for accelerating the development, manufacture and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

How do you hope to achieve greater awareness and engagement for global health in your new role at the Virchow Foundation for Global Health? How can the Virchow Prize for Global Health help to increase awareness?

I look forward to serving with my esteemed colleagues on the Virchow Foundation for Global Health Council to contribute to the improvement of health worldwide. The Council offers an important platform to work across sectors and regions to elevate global health and raise the visibility of the field. Furthermore, the Council oversees the Virchow Prize for Global Health which offers an important opportunity to recognize the special merits and achievements in the field of global health. The Prize is important to the field, since there is arguably no global health award or prize on the scale of other scientific and medical prizes, such as the Nobel Prize or the Lasker Awards. As a member of the Council, I look forward to championing this important effort.

Dr Hajjeh is a senior public health leader with 25 years of experience in global health, health policy and diplomacy, and health management, especially in the Middle East Region. Since 2019, Dr Hajjeh serves as the Director of Programme Management at the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (WHO/EMRO). Prior to this role, she held the position of the Director of the Department of Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control. Prior to joining WHO/EMRO in 2016, Dr Hajjeh worked with the United States Centers for Disease Prevention and Control for 23 years. Dr Hajjeh is motivated to join the Council to bring more visibility to global health priorities.

From your perspective, why is engagement and awareness raising for global health important?

It is critical to get more commitment from all key stakeholders including governments, partners, people and communities. With Covid-19 in particular, but for many other important cross cutting public health issues, such as infectious diseases and environmental health, it has become very clear that “no one is safe until everyone is safe”. Better awareness of global health issues will be critical to ensure more support at all levels for the important issues that affect us all, more resources and capacity building, and more accountability. 

How are you committed to engaging in global health topics within your current professional role and activities?

As part of my role as senior WHO official, and as overseeing all technical health issues in the region, I am responsible for ensuring we focus on implementing the many global health strategies, closely monitoring and seeing results at country level. I am also engaged in the development of many of these policies, supporting countries, and advocating for the importance of stronger global health systems and platforms.

How do you hope to achieve greater awareness and engagement for global health in your new role at the Virchow Foundation for Global Health? How can the Virchow Prize for Global Health help to increase awareness?

In my role with the foundation, I would like to bring more awareness of global health priorities from the WHO overall and especially regional perspectives, and a better sense of real challenges on the ground, as well as what is currently done and being achieved, so we don’t duplicate efforts. I think the Virchow prize will bring important visibility to global health and hopefully motivate further achievements in this area as well.