The Global Health Security Conference is an international event that brings together global health stakeholders. It serves as a space to examine progress made in health systems strengthening and to identify opportunities that further the advancement of health security on a global scale.

The Conference’s third edition, GHS2024, was held between June 18-21, 2024, in Sydney, Australia. Its main sponsors included the Australian and Canadian governments, the Indo-Pacific Center for Health Security, and Finland’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The rich agenda comprised 109 panels, eight keynote adresses, 22 training workshops, four side events, and multiple sponsored endeavors. These activities were attended by subject-matter experts from academia, government bodies, international organizations, and the private sector, together representing diverse fields including health, veterinary medicine, defense, international relations, sociology, and anthropology, among others.

A delegation from EMPHNET participated in this high-level event alongside other organizations. This participation offered an opportunity for EMPHNET’s delegates to engage in discussions with entities of similar missions, hold meetings, and participate in the conference's sessions and workshops.

Throughout the conference, speakers emphasized the persistent and emerging threats that risk global health security. They deemed climate change an instigator of disease outbreaks and other health problems, while also naming antimicrobial resistance, increasing conflicts, and economic hardships as key factors weighing down low- and middle-income countries. Proposed solutions to such challenges included multi-sectoral approaches, International Health Regulations (IHR) capacity building, workforce development, innovative data management and reporting, and community engagement. These solutions were proposed based on country and/or continent perspectives, with presenters further enriching the dialogue with tested and hands-on-experience. From another angle, conference sessions shed light on the multi-sectoral nature of health security, incorporating and prompting discussions from the defense industry, social sciences, and law.

Within these discussions, the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) received important attention. The region was represented by the Ministry of Public Health of Lebanon, the National Health Institute and the Ministry of Health of Pakistan, and the Public Health Authority of Saudi Arabia, alongside other individual representation. The contributions of these entities were of immediate relevance to the health challenges affecting the region. They made recommendations pertaining to workforce capacity building, infodemic management, health protection in fragile settings, climate-change-induced emergencies, preparedness at entry points, as well as community engagement.

EMPHNET contributed its own insights at the event. Its delegates participated as panelists alongside the African Field Epidemiology Network and other entities in a skill building workshop on localizing Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs). The session focused on integrating social science through Rapid Qualitative Methods (RQMs), whereby the experiences with qualitative methods used by FETPs, the challenges of localizing FETPs, and the use of RQMs in disease surveillance were shared with pertinence to the EMR, Africa, and beyond.

In presentations delivered from and for the region, specific acknowledgement was made for the contributions of EMPHNET, particularly in the areas of biorisk management, one health, and disease control measures.

EMPHNET participates in skills building workshop organized by the Pandemic Action Network on “Mobilizing Additional, Predictable, and Sustainable Sources of Financing for Global Health Security”

The EMR's active engagement and recognition at GHS2024 underscores the global implications of the region’s health profile. It also demonstrates the need for nationally informed and contextualized guidance to strengthen global health security.