Government
The Alliance provides members with opportunities for coordinated and collective advocacy and engagement with Australian Parliamentarians and senior government officials, particularly within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security.
In 2022, we established the Parliamentary Friends of Global Health group with co-chairs Mike Freelander MP and Dr Anne Webster MP. This provides an ongoing forum for parliamentarians to meet and learn from our Global Health community, and build a collective of global health champions in Canberra.
The Alliance also regularly prepares in collaboration with members, sponsors and partners, submissions to open government enquiries. Recently, this has included a submission into DFAT’s new international development policy at the end of November 2022, annual Pre-Budget Submission to Treasury on behalf of Alliance members, and a submission to inform the roles and function of a new Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
As a trusted partner, we are often called on by DFAT to convene our expert membership to consult on and inform the future direction of Australia’s global health and development priorities, such as with the recent consultations on the new International Development Policy and the Second Phase of the Centre for Health Security.
The Alliance secretariat also engages regularly with parliamentarians on issues related to members and to build new global health champions within government
The Arts
Film, and the arts overall, are an under-utilised power source for global health messaging and connection to places and peoples.
For the past two years, the Alliance has hosted a highly-popular Australian Global Health Film Festival, delivered in partnership with Global Health Film, and with the sponsorship and support of number of our members.
Across our 2022 and 2023 festivals, we have showcased 14 incredible films across four Australian cities – and online to a global audience – covering topics including planetary health, mental health, gender and activism, climate action, inequity and First Nations peoples’ experiences.
Alliance members also had the opportunity to share their expertise and reflections on our intimate panel discussions following each film.
Early planning is already underway for our 2024 festival…get in touch with us if you or your organisation would like to be involved!
Private sector
Australia has world-leading experts and organisations contributing to global health evidence-based best practice, supporting the Australian Government’s development agenda and shaping the next generation of global health leaders.
Yet currently, funding pools for global health in Australia are few, and already fall short – compared to other OECD country resources and strategic investments – to meet the current global health gaps and the future demands, such as rising climate-related health impacts. Unlike the US and UK, Australia lacks our own strong global health champion philanthropists or investors whose philanthropy has and continues to shape global health worldwide.
There is therefore an urgent need to better make the case for Australia’s contribution to global health in order to unlock increased & sustained investment not only from the Australian government, but to identify new sources for global health funding in as-yet unexplored/unmapped avenues.
Work is underway in 2024 to map a blueprint for sustainable financing of global health by contributions by the private sector and philanthropy. This will, in turn, contribute to the evidence base required to inform the direction and establishment of a Business Alliance for Global Health.