Global Health at a Crossroads: WHO’s 2025 Emergency Response to Outbreaks, Conflicts and Humanitarian Crises

The author examines how 2025 has become a pivotal year for global health, marked by converging crises such as conflict, disease outbreaks, climate shocks, and displacement that are impacting fragile health systems and exposing deep structural inequities. In response, the WHO’s $1.5 billion Health Emergency Appeal underscores the urgency of coordinated, resilient action, emphasizing mobile health teams, regional hubs, and community-based care. However, operational barriers, funding uncertainties, and geopolitical tensions threaten progress, particularly in under-resourced regions. The adoption of a pandemic agreement offers hope for reform, but real change requires transparent governance, inclusive decision-making, and sustained investment in local health systems to ensure equitable, rights-based responses that address both immediate needs and long-term resilience.