Launch of the World Federation of Academic Institutions for Global Health

The world counts a number of regional bodies that coordinate academic institutions with a commitment to public and global health as well as coordinating bodies for National Societies of Tropical Medicine and International Health. However there is currently no global representative body in which these institutions would work together to provide evidence to inform policies on global health or coordinate collaborative activities to advance global health encompassing  the wide range of disciplines that can address the challenges of integrating health into sustainable development in the post 2015 agenda.

To bring together the voice of all regional networks, the World Federation of academic institutions in global health was launched at the fifth World Health Summit at Berlin, on 21st October. The mission of the Federation is "To provide a global platform for an academic voice to influence policies on health and global governance mechanisms, to promote methodological development and research, and to share good practices in capacity building and on educational innovations."

The founding member Networks were:

• The Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), USA
• The Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER)
• The European Academic Global Health Alliance (EAGHA)
• The Asia-Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health (APACPH)
• The Latin American Alliance for Global Health (ALASAG)
• The Association of Schools of Public Health in Africa (ASPHA)
• The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH)
• Network of institutions for Higher education in International Health (tropED)
• The Federation of European Societies for Tropical Medicine and International Health (FESTMIH)

For the first period, the Federation will be hosted as an independent organization in Africa at the School of Public Health, University of Ghana. During this time, Prof. Nuria Casamitjna, ISGlobal training and education Director and Co-Director of the ISGlobal-UB Master of Global Health will be the Treasurer of the Federation.