France's new Global Health Strategy

France has released its Global Health Strategy for 2023-2027, in Lyon today, in the presence of three French Ministers, the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Health and Prevention, the Minister of Higher Education and Research, and WHO’s Director-General.

As a lead player for shaping global health policies, France has called on national and international stakeholders to support building a new global health architecture towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in particular SDG3, focused on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all, at all ages.

The new Health Strategy aims to help reduce health inequalities and strengthen the One Health approach to better prevent and prepare for future global health emergencies. It urges the global community to address the health consequences of climate change and the environmental impact on health systems.

To underscore WHO’s and France strong collaboration and in recognition of France’s pivotal global health role, Dr Tedros travelled to France to join the launch event.

“France was a founding member of WHO in 1948 and has been a strong friend to WHO throughout the 75 years since then,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “As one of the world’s largest economies, France has a critical role to play in global health, and the new Global Health Strategy will enhance that role. It aligns well with WHO’s priorities to promote, provide, protect, empower and perform for health.”

France shares key health priorities with WHO, adopting a crosscutting approach and prioritizing universal health coverage (UHC) as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. France also provides support for transformative initiatives at WHO such as the WHO Academy and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) which the Ministers visited today.