Insights on global health reform discussions, trends and perspectives: September 2026
The sixth in our ongoing series of Insights papers on global health reform discussions, trends and perspectives is now available.
Since its launch on the margins of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in September 2025, the Accra Reset, with its High-Level Panel on Reform of the Global Health Architecture and Governance, has become one of the most closely watched initiatives in the reform landscape. The Panel’s recommendations will be presented this September at UNGA81, and their success will be judged by whether they live up to expectations, secure political uptake, and translate into sustained action. This timing also means they can serve as a thought-provoking input as the WHO’s Joint Task Force on reforms begins its work.
There are no quick fixes for the structural challenges that global health reform seeks to address. The present ‘set' of global health institutions, functions and paradigms took decades to establish; the future reset will also inevitably take time. Coalitions will be needed to build and sustain political momentum, drive the reform agenda, and ensure that it survives electoral cycles that are far shorter than reforms themselves. Impact should therefore be judged over years, not weeks or months.
As reform processes unfold, low- and middle-income countries are expected to continue to set the priorities and increasingly put resources behind them, as their fiscal capacity allows. At the same time, country ownership and fiscal independence should not turn into isolation.
Reform of the international system for health should not be interpreted as a vendetta against institutions or the individuals working within them. The debate at hand is not whether global institutions have contributed, and continue to contribute, to improvements in health. The more relevant question is whether even better outcomes could be achieved if global functions for health were organised differently.
We mustn’t lose sight of the fundamental purpose of reform: maximising health across the world.
We will continue to share regular updates and analyses around key issues and decisions in what will be a critical few months for shaping the future of global health.