Health Action International

🐍 19 September is International Snakebite Awareness Day! This year, we’re reflecting on what’s possible when communities, health systems and policymakers come together to tackle one of the world’s most neglected health challenges. In 2025, HAI and our partner, Access to Medicines Platform Kenya, worked across Kakamega and Vihiga Counties in western Kenya to strengthen access to life-saving snakebite prevention and treatment. We supported communities and health workers, strengthened access to antivenom, and advocated for stronger county-level systems and policies. The result? More communities reached. More health workers equipped. More antivenom available closer to those who need it. And stronger health systems better prepared to save lives. But this work is far from over. We will continue pushing for a world where no one dies or suffers preventable disability simply because life-saving snakebite treatment is out of reach. Visit the website for our free to download snakebite education materials: https://lnkd.in/e_svkx9c #ISBAD2026 #InternationalSnakebiteAwarenessDay #Snakebite

🌍 The 2027 Dutch budget brings a welcome boost for global health. DGHA particularly welcomes the increased investment in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), as international funding cuts and anti-rights movements threaten access to care and hard-won rights. It is positive to see the Dutch Global Health Strategy clearly leading the approach to its policy and budget for 2027. As the DGHA, we advocate that it is important that this leadership translates into sustained investment across all its priority areas, to continue its holistic approach to global health. Cross-border health threats, pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR), climate change and health, and health system strengthening all remain essential, and the Netherlands has deep, hard-won expertise to bring to each of them. We will also be following how the promised larger funding increases for 2028 and beyond take shape. The DGHA welcomes the strengthened support to civil society, a key pillar for both health and democracy, especially as civic space keeps shrinking globally. It is also positive to see recognition of the importance of a strong global health architecture, and welcome continued close cooperation between Development Cooperation and the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) in implementing the Dutch Global Health Strategy. Making good on this ambition will take effective implementation and real coordination across departments. It is encouraging to see VWS also acknowledge the important role of global health for the Dutch population's health, highlighting this as an area for deeper EU cooperation ahead of the Dutch EU presidency in 2029 and backing a strong multilateral order with WHO at its centre. #Prinsjesdag #HealthForAll

Type 1 diabetes is often a low priority in health systems and the realities of people living with it rarely reach the people making policy. To better understand these realities, ACCISS partners in in Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, Mali, and Peru, coordinated focus groups of people living with diabetes, caregivers, and health workers to identify barriers within their health systems and co-create interventions to address them. Across all four countries, five cross-cutting themes were identified: 1. Gaps in diabetes information is a key barrier 2. The psychosocial and mental health burden of diabetes is under-addressed 3. Barriers to accessing affordable insulin, supplies and blood glucose self-monitoring technologies remain 4. Family and caregiver support is central to support for people with type 1 diabetes but structurally fragile 5. Interventions must be differentiated by age, gender, life stage and cultural context By co-creating and prioritising solutions with the communities affected, each country arrived at recommendations that are locally owned and feasible within its own health system, showing what meaningful engagement can contribute to policy and programme design. Find out more about these findings and how the focus groups were carried out across the four countries: https://lnkd.in/e_gvMDr5 ONG Santé Diabète, CRONICAS Centro de excelencia en enfermedades crónicas, The Helmsley Charitable Trust, NCD Policy Lab, NCD Alliance

HAI has joined 186 other civil society organisations from across Europe, representing various sectors, in calling on the European Commission to restore meaningful, adequate and predictable operating grants under 2026 EU4Health Work Programme and beyond. The discontinuation of EU4Health operating grants has undermined the ability of health CSOs have to represent patients, contribute independent expertise, and engage in #EU policymaking. A strong, independent civil society is essential to European democracy. To protect it, the Commission must: ✅ Restore sustainable operating grants for health civil society ✅ Turn the EU Civil Society Strategy's commitments into concrete action Read the full statement here: https://lnkd.in/e6Bz6E9U #EU4Health #CivilSociety #HealthAdvocacy

In a world increasingly hostile to the enjoyment of sexual and reproductive health and rights, research, evidence-based policy and community level engagement is more important than ever.   For four years, we and our partners in the Solutions for Supporting Healthy Adolescents and Rights Protection (SHARP) Project did exactly that. Working with a network of champions (including young people, faith leaders and influencers) across six countries in the Great Lakes Region of Africa, we changed perspectives and policies to improve adolescents’ access to essential #SRH services and commodities. While we are proud of our achievements and the progress the project inspired, the ongoing struggles faced by young people in accessing the health services they need means that this work is still needed now more than ever. This World Sexual Health Day (4 September) we are taking the opportunity to remind donors, governments and international organisations of the importance of investing in global SRH as a foundation for happier, healthier and more prosperous societies. Find out more about HAI’s research and advocacy on SRHR, and how you can support, by visiting the website: https://lnkd.in/eBk89t-y #SRH #SRHR #AdolescentHealth #SHARP #ReproductiveHealth #GlobalHealth #WSHD2026 #EveryBody #HealthyAdolescents #WorldSexualHealthDay

Reliable access to blood glucose self-testing is essential to achieving two of the World Health Organization’s five global diabetes coverage targets: • 80% of people with diagnosed diabetes have good control of glycaemia • 100% of people with type 1 diabetes have access to affordable insulin and blood glucose self-monitoring As long as high prices and low availability of these technologies continues to restrict access, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, these targets will remain out of reach. The ACCISS Study has examined the barriers to access to blood glucose self-monitoring devices throughout their product lifecycle, from R&D through to the end user, and identifies opportunities to overcome them. 🎥 Watch the video for some of the key findings. 📄 Or dive deeper into the findings here: https://lnkd.in/eEvx5_TW FIND, The Helmsley Charitable Trust, Molly Lepeska, David Beran, Stéphane Besançon, NCD Policy Lab, ONG Santé Diabète, NCD Alliance, James Reid

🎧 🎙️ 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭: 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐬𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡? Following our recent paper on the EU Safe Hearts Plan, Giulio Stefanini and I spoke with Anna Johnson on the "In conversation with" podcast of The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. In the podcast, we discuss the “benefits gap” between how well AI performs technically and the benefits it delivers in real-world healthcare. We explain why the growing use of AI in cardiovascular care is promising, but also why better predictions do not automatically translate into better health outcomes, and how we should focus more on the legal, institutional, and operational conditions. 🎧 Listen to the podcast via The Lancet: https://lnkd.in/e9BmGeh3 🎧 Listen to the podcast via Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dGiwSdCd 🎧 Listen to the podcast via Apple: https://lnkd.in/df8g79kg 📖 Read our open-access paper ("Artificial intelligence in the EU Safe Hearts Plan: prediction alone is not enough"): https://lnkd.in/g4ckuWXD Georges Hattab Franziska Bächler Zentrum für Life Sciences-Recht (ZLSR) University of Basel The Lancet Group

As health information becomes increasingly difficult to navigate, and trust in institutions declines, healthcare workers are playing an increasingly important role in helping patients and communities make informed, evidence-based decisions. Through ECHO, HAI is working with partners to develop training and resources that equip healthcare workers with the skills to recognise and address health mis- and disinformation.   👉 We invite you to explore the new webpage and learn more about the project, our work, and how you can get involved.   🔗 Read more about ECHO and HAI’s work: https://lnkd.in/eFZb2QYx   #ECHOProject #HealthMisinformation #HealthDisinformation

👏 Proud to see HAI’s snakebite partner organisation, Access to Medicines Platform Kenya, highlighting the hidden cost of snakebites and the urgent need for accessible, affordable treatment on TV 47. A big thank you to TV 47 for shining a light on snakebite and for helping bring this important conversation to a wider audience. #Snakebite #PrimaryHealthcare #AccessToMedicines