European Development Days 2022: Key Takeaways

The European Development Days (EDD) bring the European and global development community together each year to share ideas and experiences in ways that inspire new partnerships and innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.

Emerging Ag took part in the 2022 edition held on June 21-22 to follow crucial discussions such as the one on the new European Union Global Health Strategy.

EDD 2022 took place as a hybrid event with events both physically held at the Brussels EXPO and online. The leading theme of the discussion was building sustainable partnerships for a connected world through the Global Gateway, the European Union framework to promote sustainable and trusted connections to tackle the most pressing global challenges, from fighting climate change to improving health systems and boosting competitiveness and security of global supply chains. 

The EED program featured more than 90 sessions on critical aspects of the partnerships between the European Union and Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, the Indo-Pacific and the EU Neighbourhood, exploring the geopolitical, financial and geographical aspects as well as specific topics such as resilient health systems, and food security.

Sessions included several events with different formats such as High-Level Panels (HLPs) with high-profile policymakers and speakers for thought-provoking debates, presentations of the latest reports and projects on development-related topics, interactive brainstorming sessions to codevelop with the audience concrete recommendations and many more informal, highly dynamic discussions.

Emerging Ag contributed to the discussion on the new Global Health Strategy of the European Union that will be centered around the basic principles of inclusivity, equity in access in health technologies, partnerships and community engagement, gender equality and global solidarity. 

In addition to being inspired by these basic principles, it is crucial that the new EU Global Health Strategy carefully considers the value of innovation and the huge impacts on development that diseases such as malaria still have. 

Every year malaria kills over 627 000 people and infects over 241 million people. Current interventions, such as drug treatments, bed nets and insecticide spraying, have helped to lower the burden of malaria but have not been able to eradicate the disease in many countries. Supporting the research of innovative solutions to fight this preventable and treatable disease so that it stops destroying lives, families, economies, and countries should remain a high priority for the global community.

The European Union, through its new Global Health Strategy, has a fundamental role to play in helping the research and development of novel vector control methods to effectively address malaria as well as other vector-borne diseases in partnering regions such as Africa and India.