World Health Summit, Regional Meeting 2026

27 – 29 April 2026 | Nairobi, Kenya

Introduction

The World Health Summit (WHS) Regional Meeting 2026 was held at the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON), bringing together policymakers, global health leaders, researchers, innovators, civil society, and youth representatives to explore transformative solutions to strengthen Africa’s health systems.

Under the central theme “Reimagining Africa’s Health Systems: Innovation, Integration and Interdependence,” the Summit provided a high-level platform for dialogue through plenary sessions, ministerial roundtables, and technical discussions. These engagements focused on advancing resilient, inclusive, and sustainable health systems across the continent, with particular emphasis on equity, localization, and regional collaboration.

H.E. Dr. William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya, officially opened the World Health Summit Regional Meeting in Nairobi by underscoring Africa’s evolving role as a proactive driver of global health policy, innovation and implementation. He called for an urgent rebalancing of the global health architecture to reflect equity, solidarity and shared responsibility, noting that recent crisis, including COVID-19 and other public health emergencies, had exposed deep structural inequities in access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, particularly for African countries. President Ruto emphasized the need to shift decisively from dependency on external systems towards strengthened domestic capacity, highlighting local manufacturing, resilient supply chains and sustained investment in national health systems as critical priorities.

He further stressed the importance of sustainable and predictable financing, pointing to declining development assistance as a catalyst for accelerated domestic resource mobilization alongside advocacy for fairer global financing mechanisms. Framing health as both a development and security imperative, he reaffirmed Africa’s readiness to act as a co architect in shaping a more inclusive, accountable and responsive global health system

In a special address, H.E. Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC, issued a strong call to action, emphasizing that “this is time for Africa” and invoking Nelson Mandela’s words to highlight the importance of vision and ambition. He stressed the urgency of moving from fragmented health approaches towards coordinated, Africa-led systems that prioritize health sovereignty, domestic resource mobilization, and local manufacturing of health commodities. Dr. Kaseya underscored the centrality of African leadership, unity and coordination in driving meaningful reform, noting that Africa must speak with one voice in global health negotiations, as demonstrated during recent pandemic responses. Dr. Kaseya further presented Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty (AHSS) agenda as a concrete and ongoing reform process, while highlighting Africa CDC’s role as a technical anchor, supporting Member States in translating political commitments into implementable strategies across manufacturing, surveillance, workforce development and emergency preparedness.

Emphasizing that reform must be action-oriented, measurable and grounded in country realities, he cautioned against fragmentation and called for accelerated progress in local production of medical countermeasures, strengthened regulatory systems and enhanced data governance. He concluded by noting that platforms such as the African HighLevel Ministerial Committee (AHLMC) are critical to institutionalizing Africa’s influence and ensuring sustained, coordinated engagement in shaping the global health architecture.