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Date: 15–17 November 2021

World Health Organization (WHO) Global Evidence-to-Policy (E2P) Summit
Evidence as a catalyst for policy and societal change. Towards more
equitable, resilient and sustainable global health.

Provisional Programme
Day 1: Monday, 15 November 2021:
Beyond the pandemic: Reshaping evidence-to-policy and practice mechanisms for
strengthened country resilience
Time: 14:00 – 17:15 (CET)
Moderator: Elmer Huerta, Director Cancer Preventorium, GW Cancer Center, United States of America (U.S.A.)
14:00-14:05 Opening
14:05-14:15 Official Welcome Note: Mobilizing evidence for impact in a global health emergency
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General

14:15-15:00 Keynote speeches: Innovating the evidence-policy nexus: Evidence at the core of
equitable, sustainable and resilient global health
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ban Ki-moon, Chair, Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future; Co-chair of the Ban Ki-moon
Centre for Global Citizens; 8th UN Secretary General
Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist

15:00-15:50 Panel discussion with Ministers of Health: Leveraging evidence for policy change and
societal transformation
Moderator: Ilona Kickbusch, Founding director and chair of the Global Health Centre at the
Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland
Panelists: H.E. Dr Ahmed Al Saidi, Minister of Health, Oman
H.E. Dr Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Health, Indonesia
H.E. Dr Enrique Paris Mancilla, Minister of Health, Chile
H.E. Dr Janez Poklukar, Minister of Health, Slovenia
H.E. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, Minister of Health, Ghana

15:50-16:15 Virtual break

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16:15-17:05 Global expert panel: Knowledge translation after COVID-19: Driving change through
the evidence-policy-society interface
Moderator: John Lavis, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Evidence-Informed Health
Systems; Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Informed Policy; Co-Lead,
COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END), McMaster
University, Canada
Panelists: Rose Oranje, Director, Public Policy and Communication, AFIDEP, Kenya
Shehla Zaidi, Professor, Health Policy and Systems, Aga Kahn University, Pakistan
Martin McKee, Medical Director and Professor of European Public Health, London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Research Director, European Observatory on
Health Systems and Policies, United Kingdom (U. K.)
Steven Hoffman, Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health
at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; Professor of Global Health, Law, and
Political Science at York University, the Director of the Global Strategy Lab; Lead of the
UN Research Roadmap for COVID-19 Recovery, Canada
Yodi Mahendradhata, Vice Dean for Research and Development, Faculty of Medicine,
Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
Vivian Lin, Executive Associate Dean and Professor of Public Health Practice in the Li
Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, China, Hong Kong SAR

17:05-17:15 Closure

Day 2: Tuesday, 16 November 2021:

Global challenges, regional specificity: Capitalizing on lessons learned from COVID-19
evidence-to-policy processes around the world
Time: All times indicated in CET

Regional focus events

9:00-12:00 Building on lessons learned from COVID-19 evidence-informed decision making in

WHO European Region

9:00-12:00 Focus event of the WHO Regional Office for Africa

8:30-11:00 Focus event of the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia

10:00-13:00 Focus event of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region on NEDtP1: COVID-19 and
Institutionalizing the Use of Evidence for Policy-Making for Health

18:00-21:00 Focus event of the WHO American Region on EVIPNet2 Americas

1
NEDtP: Regional Network of Institutions for Evidence and Data for Policy (EMRO regional network part of EVIPNet)
2
EVIPNet: Evidence-informed Policy Network
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12:00-13:45 Global focus event: Institutionalizing evidence-informed decision-making for effective
health policy
Moderator: Laurenz Langer, Senior Researcher, Africa Centre for Evidence, University of
Johannesburg, South Africa
Presenters: Emma Rhule, Policy Translation Lead, United Nations University International
Institute for Global Health
Stephane Jacobzone, Senior Adviser, Public Management and Budgeting, Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development
James Wilsdon, Digital Science Professor of Research Policy, University of Sheffield
and Director of the Research on Research Institute (RoRI), U. K.
Zubin Shroff, Health Systems Specialist, Alliance for Health Policy and Systems
Research
Panelists: Sara Bennett, Director, Health Systems; Associate Chair, International Health at Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, U.S.A.
Viroj Tangcharoensathien, Senior Advisor, International Health Policy Program and
Advisor on Global Health, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand
Fadi El-Jardali, Professor of Health Systems and Policy, Director of the Knowledge to
Policy (K2P) Center; Director, WHO Collaborating Center for Evidence-Informed
Policy and Practice, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Ruth Stewart, Director, Africa Centre for Evidence, University of Johannesburg, South
Africa; chairperson of the Africa Evidence Network
Susan Michie, professor of Health Psychology, director of The Centre for Behaviour
Change and head of The Health Psychology Research Group, University College
London, U. K.
John Lavis, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Evidence-Informed Health
Systems; Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Informed Policy; Co-Lead,
COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END), McMaster
University, Canada
15:00-17:30 Global focus event: Linking up the evidence ecosystem towards achieving WHO’s triple
billion targets
Facilitator: Kaelan Moat, Assistant Professor (Part-Time); Managing Director, McMaster Health
Forum, McMaster University, Canada
Speakers: Lucy Kuhn-Barrientos, Coordinator of the Evidence-Informed Health Policies Unit,
Health Technology Assessment and Evidence-Based Healthcare Department, Ministry of
Health of Chile, Chile
Mark Leys, Professor and Head of the Organization Policy and Inequalities in Health
research group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Promise Nduku, Researcher, Africa Centre for Evidence, University of Johannesburg,
South Africa

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Day 3: Wednesday, 17 November 2021:
Keeping the momentum, taking action: Building resilient evidence-to-policy and
practice mechanisms
Time: 14:00 – 17:00 (CET)
Moderator: Christian Lindmeier, WHO Spokesperson & Communications

14:00-14:10 Welcome & brief reflections on day 2 focus events

14:10-14:15 Highlight video: Country success stories and challenges

14:15-15:30 Legitimacy, and trust: Improving the use of evidence in politics and society
Moderator: Susann Roth, Advisor and Chief of Knowledge Advisory Services Center,
Asian Development Bank
Presenters: Michael Bang Petersen, Professor of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
Patricia Garcia, Professor, School of Public Health, Cayetano Heredia University,
Peru; former Minister of Health, Peru
Panelists: Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, U.S.A.
Farida Al Hosani, Official spokesperson for health care sector, United Arab Emirates
Euphrasia Ebai-Atuh Ndi, Team Lead, Cameroon Consumer Service Organization,
Cameroon
Julia Belluz, Senior Health Correspondent, Vox, Canada
Yoke Ling Chee, Director of Programs in Third World Network, Malaysia
James Lee, Medical Department, Médecins Sans Frontières, Belgium
15:30-15:50 Virtual break

15:50-16:10 Launch of the draft EVIPNet Call for Action and partner coalition for sustainable
evidence-policy-society systems
John Reeder, WHO Director Research for Health

16:10-16:40 Statements on the draft EVIPNet Call for Action

Support statements and remarks from invited stakeholders

16:40-17:00 Closing remarks

Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist

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