From Global Architecture To Resilience Readiness An Open Letter On The WHA79 Decision Under Agenda Item 20.1: “Reform Of The Global Health Architecture And The UN80 Initiative”
By Lola-Dare
To Member States, the World Health Organization, global health initiatives, developmentpartners, civil society, youth leaders, communities, and all stakeholders committed to a fairerglobal health future:
The decision adopted at the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly under Agenda Item 20.1 istimely and important. It creates a Member State-led, WHO-hosted process to reform the globalhealth architecture at a moment when the current model is under increasing strain. To succeed,this process must do more than improve coordination; it must build a system that is country-led,community-anchored, financially resilient, and ready for shock.
For too long, global health has invoked country ownership while maintaining fragmentedfinancing, vertical priorities, and decision-making that often excludes those closest to delivery.With official development assistance under pressure, these weaknesses are now fully exposed.The question is no longer whether reform is needed, but whether the international system isready to move from dependency and fragmentation toward sovereignty, solidarity, andresilience.
Past reform efforts offer clear lessons. Alignment must change how money moves, how decisionsare made, and how accountability is shared. Integration must strengthen core systemcapabilities, not only disease-specific priorities. Transition must be planned before externalsupport declines, not after. And COVID-19 made one point unmistakable: no country is securewithout stronger domestic capability, and no system is legitimate without fairer global solidarity.
The present funding downturn must not become an excuse for abandonment or a retreat intonarrow nationalism. It should instead force a more durable settlement: global solidarity built onnational and local capability. Sovereignty without solidarity risks abandonment; solidarity withoutsovereignty sustains dependency. Effective reform now requires both.
We, therefore, call for the WHA79 reform process to be guided by three strategic priorities:
Center reform on country leadership and community capability by giving real voice tosubnational systems, civil society, women, youth, and communities, and by treating primaryhealth care as the foundation of preparedness, equity, trust, and universal coverage.
Redesign financing, transition, and accountability around resilience readiness so that supportbuilds institutions, data, governance, and delivery capacity before responsibility shifts, and sothat progress is measured by sustained capability rather than activity alone.
Rebuild global solidarity on stronger national and local systems by financing non-State actors asresilience partners and converting pandemic lessons into durable community platforms, supplycapacity, adaptive institutions, social protection, and trusted data.
For Chestrad Global, this is not an abstract policy debate. Through the UbuntuPlus ResilienceReadiness Framework, the Àjọjẹ Community Resilience Model and Fund, and our broader commitment to the primary health care approach, local institutions, women, children, youth, and communities, we view this reform agenda as an implementation challenge: countries and communities must become more ready, more investable, and better able to sustain progress.
WHA79 must not become another reform process that produces recommendations without changing incentives. We urge Member States, WHO, financing partners, and global health institutions to use this moment to redesign funding, accountability, and implementation of around resilience readiness.
The future of global health will not be secured by architecture alone, but by whether countries and communities are genuinely ready to govern, finance, deliver, adapt, and withstand shock. That is the standard by which this reform process should now be judged.
Dr. Lola Dare Founder & President, Chestrad Global
