Germany

WHO is proud to partner with Germany, which has significantly increased its funding to WHO during the 2020-2021 biennium. Overall contributions from Germany rose from US$ 359.2 million in 2018-2019 to US$ 1 billion for the 2020-2021 biennium, making Germany the largest donor to WHO.  

In May 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Federal Republic of Germany established a new global hub and platform for pandemic and epidemic intelligence, data, surveillance and analytics innovation. The WHO Hub, based in Berlin and working with partners around the world, will lead innovations in data analytics across the largest network of global data to detect and monitor pandemic and epidemic risks worldwide.

“All the work that goes into pandemic and epidemic preparedness must occur before an outbreak starts,” said Dr Tedros at the opening ceremony. “Data linkage and analysis, and the ability to better detect and assess risks of disease events in their earliest stages before they amplify and cause death and societal disruption, is what the WHO Hub will focus on. WHO is grateful that partners like Germany and Chancellor Merkel are joining the world on this necessary path.”

Germany supports WHO’s core function of providing global leadership on health, engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed. Germany was instrumental in putting the Global Action Plan to accelerate progress on the health-related Sustainable Development Goals on the global agenda, and supported WHO and partners throughout its development and launch at the 2019 UN General Assembly.

The Global Action Plan highlights the essential role of health for the achievement of all SDGs and is a historic commitment now being implemented by twelve multilateral agencies. WHO will continue to provide leadership and work with partners to scale up country-level implementation of the Global Action Plan to support countries to sustain progress on the health-related SDGs in the context of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

The Global Action Plan and strengthened partnerships constitute a crucial asset at a time when countries are striving to protect health gains achieved so far, and build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic with more resilient health systems centred around primary health care, re-doubling efforts to achieve health and well-being for all.

Germany recognized the global threat of antimicrobial resistance during its G20 presidency in 2017 and has supported WHO’s work in this area ever since through both funding and institutional support.

Results to date show that 89 countries have enrolled in the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) with 66 countries providing resistance data collected from 9000 surveillance sites, an eight-fold increase since 2017, showing a growing understanding of the importance of controlling AMR and the need for continuous efforts by WHO.

German funding allowed WHO to develop the AWaRe classification (Access, Watch, Reserve) and the WHO practical toolkit on antimicrobial stewardship to promote the appropriate use of existing antibiotics; the creation of target product profiles to guide the development of missing antibiotics; and, a report on the antibacterial clinical development pipeline.

WHO continues to actively support the Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership (GARDP) in fundraising and political outreach and provides technical advice to GARDP in their selection of drug candidates.

Germany is a long-time supporter of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) with contributions totalling more than US$ 650 million.  Fostering global commitment to polio eradication during its G7 and G20 presidencies, Germany garnered international recognition at the highest levels. Chancellor Angela Merkel is a past recipient of Rotary International’s prestigious Polio Champion Award.

At the 2019 World Health Summit, Germany called for continued universal commitment to finish the job. In Germany’s 2020 Strategy Paper Shaping Global Health, Taking Joint Action, Embracing Responsibility, polio eradication forms part of its commitment to global public health and global health security.

The GPEI is currently mobilizing its extensive infrastructure and workforce to fight COVID-19, proof of the programme’s ability to respond to emerging health threats. The polio programme is advocating for continuation of essential vaccination services throughout the pandemic.

Ongoing programme support is critical to eradicate polio globally. The GPEI partners would like to extend their profound gratitude to the Government of Germany for their engagement.  

Thanks to the support of Germany and others, WHO made important progress in its work on reducing environmental threats to health, globally estimated to be responsible for about one quarter of all deaths.

The WHO European Centre for Environment and Health provides Member States with up-to-date evidence on environmental health risks and supports policy-making to protect and promote health. The Centre leads WHO normative work on air quality and noise and works to strengthen national capacities addressing environment and health challenges. Since 1989, the Centre supports Member States in achieving commitments made at ministerial conferences on environment and health, the last of which held in Ostrava, Czechia in 2017.

• Environmental health inequalities in Europe. Second assessment report (2019)
• Inaugural Environment and Health School takes place in Bonn (2019)
• Fifth session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on Water and Health (2019)
• Achieving sustainable and healthy environments for all: celebrating 30 years of the European Environment and Health Process (2019)
• Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region (2018)
• Public health and climate change adaptation policies in the European Union (2018)