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IAPO at the 79th World Health Assembly

In addition, IAPO joined the following Constituency Statements: 

• Agenda item 12.1: Follow-up to the political declaration of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases - statement led by Save the Children.
• Agenda item 12.6: Agenda for sustainable development - statements led by Women in Global Health and World Heart Federation.
• Agenda item 15.5: Draft strategy on the economics of health for all - statement led by the International Council of Nurses, International Federation on Ageing, and NCD Alliance.
• Agenda item 20.1: Reform of the global health architecture and the UN80 Initiative - statements led by Save the Children, NCD Alliance, and Women in Global Health. 

The session was co-hosted alongside CSEM for UHC2030 - The Civil Society Engagement Mechanism for Universal Health Coverage, Global Health Council, Save the Children UK, The George Institute for Global Health, and SPHERE, the Social Participation for Health Engagement, Research, and Empowerment. 

'The Value Collection: Stories shaped by flexible, people-centred primary health care' was an immersive exhibition held alongside UNAIDS, Harvard Medical School Program in Global Primary Health Care and Roche.

This powerful exhibition brought together personal stories and objects illustrating what becomes possible when care is designed around people’s needs and lived realities, as well as transforming experiences of people-centred primary health care into a unique pieces of digital artwork in an AI-powered gallery. 

We were delighted to hear from IAPO chair, Prof. Lara Bloom, who opened the speaking segment of the event with a powerful talk on her lived experience. 

Dani also spoke at the World Medical Alliance event 'Financing the future: Investing in health workforce for economic resilience and universal health care'. This session aimed to highlight the economic and societal returns of investing in health systems and the health workforce, and explore policy pathways to align health financing with universal health care and sustainable development. 

Spotlight on WHA79 outcome:
Lack of meaningful civil society engagement in WHO-led joint task force to reform the global health architecture 

At the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA79) in May, HEAR CSO steering committee worked to ensure civil society and community voices shaped the WHO-led joint process on global health architecture reform, publishing two statements: one setting out priorities ahead of the Assembly, and one responding after Member States approved a reform process whose Task Force excludes civil society and people with lived experience. This was following a series of contributions to the WHO-led consultation process. 

NCD Alliance, one of the HEAR CSO consortium members, also expressed concern through their own statement, and a group of lived experience leaders have co-authored an article on the topic in The Lancet Global Health.

This is a cause close to IAPO's mission of ensuring patients and people with lived experience are part of decision-making in health. We encourage our global patient organisation community and wider network to engage in the discussions and lend it their support.

AMATA, the African Medicines Agency Treaty Alliance, celebrates this important partnership which will strengthen regulatory systems, advance regulatory harmonisation, and support the operationalisation of AMA as a key continental institution.

Ultimately, it will help improve access to safe, effective, and quality-assured health products for communities across Africa.

Our leadership and organisational development programme is designed to
strengthen leaders and patient organisations, fostering greater collaboration, alignment, and collective advocacy across IAPO's global network.

RISE's first module focused on the topic of organisational sustainability, with the second module happening this month focusing on public–private–patient partnerships. Module 3 will be on social participation, and module 4 on alliance building. 

IAPO welcomes its first regional ambassadors

The first cohort of IAPO's regional ambassadors have now been recruited, consisting of IAPO members from the regions of Americas, Africa, Europe, South-East Asia, Eastern Mediterranean and Western Pacific.

IAPO ambassadors will co-create with IAPO our regional hubs, a strategic platform for IAPO to connect with, support, and mobilise our members. The hubs will also be a channel for members' priorities, knowledge, and expertise to inform IAPO's global work, while equipping and mobilising members to translate IAPO's global priorities into meaningful action at the regional, national, and local levels. 

The regional ambassadors will also play a key role in advancing our work on universal health coverage and social participation through the Global Patient Charter on Social Participation and the UHC Compass.

New from the Patient Community: PMC Pulse

The Patient Movement Catalyst (PMC), of which our CEO Dani Mothci and Board chair Lara Bloom are on the Stewardship Council for, launched PMC Pulse, a monthly intelligence briefing created to bring together insights from across patient and lived experience communities, highlighting emerging trends, challenges and opportunities across healthcare.

By gathering perspectives from people working on the ground, PMC Pulse aims to identify the issues that matter most and share collective intelligence that can help inform future thinking and action.

IAPO supports international research on end-of-life care

IAPO has recently co-authored a conference poster with some of the research findings from EOLinPlace, an international research project hosted by the University of Coimbra and funded by the European Research Council.

IAPO was also acknowledged in the Patient or Public Contribution’s section of an article titled 'How Preferences and Reality on Where We Die Unfold: A Four-Country Longitudinal Qualitative Study', which appeared in the journal Health Expectations this month.

IAPO serves on the EOLinPlace Advisory Group, and has acted as the Patient Representative since 2023.

Personalised Cancer Care Alliance position paper 2.0 launches

We're pleased to share the Personalised Cancer Care Alliance (PCCA) position paper 2.0 - building on the first position paper published in 2022 - was officially launched with a webinar in May. 

The paper demonstrates a shift from conceptual advocacy to implementation-driven action, grounded in real-world evidence, lived experiences, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.

Structured in three chapters, it captures how the recommendations from the first position paper have been tested in real-world contexts through two pilot initiatives undertaken in 2024: one in Morocco and one across six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, plus the work of the Gender Working Group, bringing a gender equity lens to personalised cancer care.

IAPO at important discussions this quarter

April: Antonia Gama spoke at 'Speaking truth to power: How to turn lived experience into advocacy' held by the World Obesity Federation 📍Online
Dani Mothci chaired a panel at the WHO civil society commission annual general meeting 📍Online
IAPO held the inaugral Patient Charter Review meeting with 13 regional ambassadors, plus representatives from WHO, PMC and CSEM 📍Online
May: Agron Bytyqi attended the Biosimilar medicines conference + patient leaders’ workshop 📍Netherlands
June: Lara Bloom attended the 3rd open expert meeting on the revision of the declaration of Taipei 📍Vatican City
Dani Mothci, Paul Mendoza and Lara Bloom attended the Patient Engagement Open Forum (PEOF) 📍Spain
Dani Mothci attended the IEEPO townhall📍Switzerland
Dani Mothci and Paul Mendoza spoke at the Patient-centered health systems strengthening summit 📍Singapore/online
Antonia Gama attended the MAPPS II Brazil roundtable held by the World Obesity Federation 📍Brazil

Dates for your diary: Important upcoming events

14 - 17 July: Lived experience global summit on obesity + international congress
on obesity (ICO 2026)📍Mexico
24 - 28 Aug: WHO regional committee for Africa: Seventy-sixth session 📍 Ethiopia 
30 Aug - 2 Sept: 84th FIP world Congress of pharmacy 📍Canada
6 - 9 Sept: World congress on public health 📍 South Africa
7 - 10 Sept: WHO regional committee for South-East Asia:
Seventy-ninth session 📍 Timor-Leste
8 - 22 Sept: UN General Assembly's 81st session (UNGA 81) 📍USA
24 - 26 Sept: UICC world cancer congress 📍Hong Kong
28 Sept - 2 Oct: WHO regional committee for the Americas: Seventy-eighth session 📍USA
29 Sept - 2 Oct: European health forum Gastein (EHFG) 📍Austria
30 Sept - 1 Oct: UNIFY conference: Convening for quality 📍USA