The Future of Global Health: Themes and Thorny Questions
September 4, 2026
Editor's Note
Global health is facing its most consequential transformation in decades. Reform efforts, including the Accra Reset, already underway, reflect broad consensus on a vision for global health that shifts decision-making to countries and aligns funding behind national priorities. What is lacking is turning that vision into reality.
To lead this week's edition, CFR Senior Fellows Thomas J. Bollyky and Stephanie Psaki, Program Coordinator Anya Hirschfeld, and former intern Annabelle Gallinek assess 67 global health reform proposals and review the emerging themes and tensions that those reforms need to address.
Switching gears, TGH's Senior Contributing Editor Katherine Leach-Kemon interviews Theo Vos, a professor and leading scientist of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation's Global Burden of Disease Study, on the risks that e-bikes and e-scooters pose to young riders and ways to improve safety as children return to school this fall.
To wrap up, the Population Council's Saumya RamaRao, TGH Research Associate Alejandra Martinez, and the Population Institute's Gilda Sedgh describe how new technologies are making self-testing for cervical cancer prevention more accessible and acceptable for women who might otherwise have foregone screening, marking a small but promising step toward eliminating the disease.
Until next time!—Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor, and Allison Krugman, Interim Managing Editor
The Netherlands has seen a rise in e-bike injuries, but they are mitigated by protected bike lanes and awareness of traffic danger from an early age, researcher Theo Vos explains
