Sweden’s engagement in global health is framed within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and promotes equitable healthy lives and well-being for all, create the societal conditions for good health on equal terms, contribute to effective, sustainable and resilient health systems and prepare for and build capacity to detect and manage outbreaks. With only 22 cases occurring in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2017, polio eradication is imminent, having major implications beyond the creation of the global public good of ending a disease in human beings for only the second time in history. The challenge and opportunity now arises from the fact that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) has built up tremendous ‘polio assets’. These include laboratories, skilled human resources, managerial and technical systems and empowered groups and individuals, including women, at community levels. The GPEI has been the most extensive global health initiative in history. The completion of polio eradication has broad implications for global health – including on how best to preserve and use the polio assets and more globally on the future financing of WHO.
This meeting aims to raise awareness, stimulate debate and catalyse engagement among global health stakeholders in Sweden on the post-polio transition within the context of the SDGs.