Humanising health: conflict, equity, and resilience

World Health Innovation Summit (WISH) 2024

BMJ Group partnered with the Qatar Foundation to support the World Health Innovation Summit (WISH) 2024, a leading global health event that brings together policymakers, researchers, and healthcare professionals. Under the theme “Humanising Health: Conflict, Equity, and Resilience,” the summit explored how health systems can address inequality, respond to crises, and strengthen healthcare resilience worldwide.

As part of this collaboration, BMJ Group produced a series of global health podcasts, expert interviews, videos, and research papers designed to share evidence-based solutions and human stories that put people at the centre of health policy and practice.

Scroll down to explore the full collection of WISH 2024 podcasts, videos, and papers, and discover how we can build more equitable and resilient health systems for all.

Listen

Conflict zones, women’s health research, and reimagining palliative care

Interviews with Richard Brennan (conflict & health) & Richard Harding (palliative care)

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean

Climate leadership: knowledge is power

Interview with Tereza Kaeseva (TB & migrants)

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean

How Médecins Sans Frontières maintains neutrality in conflict zones

Interviews with Ara Darzi (Antimicrobial Resistance) & Christos Christou (MSF)

Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean

Read

The BMJ Opinion

Overlooked global health priority

Improving access and tackling inequities in palliative care globally would help to reduce preventable suffering, write Anna Peeler, Oladayo Afolabi, and Richard Harding

Millions of people around the world live and die with virtually no access to pain and symptom relief.1 We have failed to tackle this preventable suffering in people with life limiting illness, and the problem will continue to worsen as populations age and the burdens of non-communicable diseases and multimorbidity grow. Palliative care is neglected as a global health priority, and health systems around the world must better prepare to meet the growing need.

By 2060, 48 million people will die each year with serious health related suffering, an 87% increase from 2016. Moreover, 83% of these deaths will occur in low and middle income countries (LMICs) where access to adequate health services, palliative care, and essential medicines can be severely limited. Read more >>

We need to do more to keep antibiotics working

Tuberculosis is a preventable and curable disease that continues to devastate the most vulnerable, including migrant and refugee communities in the shadows of global crises

According to the World Health Organization’s global tuberculosis report, TB is one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers, claiming 1.25 million lives (including 161,000 deaths among people with HIV) and causing 10.8 million people to become ill in 2023. Refugees, migrants, and other displaced people are disproportionately vulnerable to tuberculosis, facing compounded risks such as inadequate healthcare, unsafe living conditions, and legal and social barriers.2 Only through unified and decisive action can we prevent further ill health and loss of life from TB.

Globally, around a billion people—equivalent to one in every eight people—have experienced migration or forced displacement. Although not all refugees and migrants are vulnerable, the scale of the vulnerable population is staggering. For example, in the first half of 2024, over 120 million people had been forcibly displaced because of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations and other disruptive events. This includes 46 million refugees and other people in need of international protection, 72.1 million internally displaced people, and 8 million asylum seekers.

TB rates among refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced communities can be up to 130 times higher than those among populations within host countries, underscoring the urgent need for targeted interventions in these communities. Confronting these intersecting crises requires resolute political commitment, crossborder collaboration, and bold, targeted investments. Read more >>

The international community is failing to protect healthcare in armed conflict

Regular attacks on health facilities, workers, and patients in conflicts are a devastating reality

Since 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) has documented over 7400 attacks on healthcare in armed conflict across 21 countries and territories. WHO defines an attack on healthcare as any act of verbal, physical violence, obstruction, or threat of violence that interferes with the availability, access, and delivery of curative or preventive health services during emergencies. That translates to an average of three attacks a day, every day. The attacks have killed almost 2500 health workers, patients, and bystanders—one a day. To prevent and mitigate attacks on healthcare— one of the most disturbing aspects of today’s conflicts—we need renewed political, legal, diplomatic, and programmatic efforts.

Attacks on healthcare are a global problem. While reporting is not exhaustive, most attacks over the past seven years have occurred in the occupied Palestinian territory, Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Syria.1 Despite clear prohibitions under international law, not one person has been held accountable for any of the over 7400 attacks documented by WHO. Historically, only a handful of cases have led to charges and prosecution.

The message is clear—current laws, accountability mechanisms, and diplomatic efforts are proving ineffective at protecting healthcare in conflict.2 Impunity is the rule. And the public health implications are stark—attacks on healthcare severely disrupt access to life saving and essential health services for some of the most vulnerable communities.

Urgent, collective action is required to tackle this problem that represents a terrible stain on our conscience. A major new report—In the Line of Fire: Protecting Health in Armed Conflict—analyses the situation in detail.3 It proposes a series of concrete, actionable recommendations that, if consistently implemented, chart a course to preventing and mitigating attacks on healthcare in conflict. Read more >>

Unified response is needed to tackle tuberculosis among refugees and migrants

Tuberculosis is a preventable and curable disease that continues to devastate the most vulnerable, including migrant and refugee communities in the shadows of global crises

According to the World Health Organization’s global tuberculosis report, TB is one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers, claiming 1.25 million lives (including 161 000 deaths among people with HIV) and causing 10.8 million people to become ill in 2023.1 Refugees, migrants, and other displaced people are disproportionately vulnerable to tuberculosis, facing compounded risks such as inadequate healthcare, unsafe living conditions, and legal and social barriers.2 Only through unified and decisive action can we prevent further ill health and loss of life from TB.

Globally, around a billion people—equivalent to one in every eight people—have experienced migration or forced displacement. Although not all refugees and migrants are vulnerable, the scale of the vulnerable population is staggering. For example, in the first half of 2024, over 120 million people had been forcibly displaced because of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations and other disruptive events. This includes 46 million refugees and other people in need of international protection, 72.1 million internally displaced people, and 8 million asylum seekers.

TB rates among refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced communities can be up to 130 times higher than those among populations within host countries,2 underscoring the urgent need for targeted interventions in these communities. Confronting these intersecting crises requires resolute political commitment, crossborder collaboration, and bold, targeted investments. Read more >>

BMJ Global Health: analysis

Harnessing primary healthcare to reduce the burden of cervical cancer in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Giuseppe Troisi, Nahla Gafer, Heba Alsawahli, Khalifa Elmusharaf, Matilda Byström, Jihan Azar, Mohamed Afifi, Asmus Hammerich, Hammoda Abu-Odah, Lamia Mahmoud, 8 June 2025

Cervical cancer remains a significant public health challenge in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), with significant implications for women’s health and sustainable development. Despite being largely preventable, the EMR reported high prevalence of new cases and deaths in 2022. The burden is expected to increase by 2050. Primary healthcare (PHC) offers a cost-effective platform for delivering essential health services, such as human papilloma virus vaccination and early detection and referral programmes, which are crucial for reducing cervical cancer incidence and mortality.

The paper discusses the role of PHC in cervical cancer interventions, showcasing successful examples from EMR countries and examining barriers like resource constraints, sociocultural factors and systemic inefficiencies. It also proposes solutions, such as enhancing infrastructure and human resources, fostering public–private partnerships and adopting innovative screening methods. By addressing these gaps and leveraging PHC’s potential, EMR countries can improve cervical cancer outcomes and promote health equity for girls and women across the region. Read more >>

Confronting global inequities in palliative care

Anna Peeler, Oladayo Ayobami Afolabi, Katherine E Sleeman, Maha El Akoum, Nahla Gafer, Asmus Hammerich, Richard Harding, 16 May 2025

The number of people dying with preventable, serious health-related suffering is rapidly increasing, and international calls for the expansion of palliative care services have been made, such as the World Health Assembly Resolution 67.19, which named palliative care as an essential component of Universal Health Coverage. Despite this, only about 14% of all palliative care need globally is met today, and health systems around the world are unprepared to meet the growing need. Palliative care has been shown to improve patient, caregiver and health-system outcomes and reduce costs for many populations and contexts. Geographic, social, cultural and health-literacy related inequities in access to and quality of palliative care services persist.

We provide evidence-based recommendations which require immediate, coordinated action to improve progress towards achieving equitable access to high-quality palliative care for all. These include but are not limited to ensuring every country has palliative care codified into national health policy; providing evidence-based, basic palliative care education and training for all non-specialist healthcare workers; empowering and facilitating community action in research and service development; and ensuring that all essential palliative care medicines are available for those who need them. Unless urgent, evidence-based, coordinated action is taken, countries, health systems, and communities will fail to meet the growing palliative care demand, and millions of people around the world will experience preventable suffering. Read more >>

Watch

Meeting report

Every year, the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) brings together health experts from all over the world to share ideas on global health innovation and its potential impact on health systems.

BMJ Group first formally entered a strategic partnership with WISH in September 2020—just ahead of the WISH 2020 summit, marking nearly five years. Since then, our collaboration has deepened, including a close alliance with BMJ Innovations, an online journal dedicated to sharing novel technologies, emerging digital health and pioneering medical devices, in April 2021, and ongoing joint initiatives spanning research, reports and digital health content.

Publishing & Events

Careers & Learning

Digital health

Humanising health: conflict, equity, and resilience