Berlin, Germany — Y+ Global has secured a seat on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Youth Council for 2026–2028 and contributed to urgent conversations on the future of global health and the global HIV response at the World Health Summit 2026.
As some global health institutions navigate reform and shifting funding priorities, the future of health is being shaped by decisions that will determine whose needs are prioritised and whose risks are overlooked. Y+ Global's engagement at the WHO Youth Council and the World Health Summit brings these questions into focus, particularly for young people living with and affected by HIV, whose health and rights depend on sustained investment, meaningful engagement and accountability.
Bringing young people's voices into global health decision-making
On 9 October 2026, WHO announced the new membership of its Youth Council for 2026–2028, welcoming representatives from 25 organisations working across health and development. Y+ Global will be represented by Priscilla Ama Addo, Junior Programmes Officer at Y+ Global, creating an important opportunity to bring the priorities of young people living with and affected by HIV into global health policy discussions.
As institutions reconsider how they operate, collaborate, and allocate resources, young people must have opportunities not only to contribute their needs, priorities and ideas but also to influence decisions that shape their health, rights, and futures.
This was equally relevant at the World Health Summit 2026, held in Berlin and online from 11–13 October under the theme “From Crisis to Resilience: Innovating for Health.” The Summit brought together leaders from politics, science, civil society and the private sector to explore how collaboration and innovation can build more equitable and resilient health systems.
Representing Y+ Global at the World Health Summit, Eddy Rudram, Communications and Advocacy Manager, joined discussions on what the changing global health landscape means for young people and the HIV response, highlighting how young people’s needs and priorities are too often absent from wider global health conversations.
“Global health priorities are shifting. That much is clear. Yet young people are too often the first to be left behind. Across health, and particularly HIV, we are seeing the spaces we fought hard to occupy come under threat, limiting our ability to advocate for our health and rights. We cannot allow young people to be pushed aside or the progress we’ve fought for to be undone.”
Progress on HIV does not happen in isolation. It depends on wider health systems, international cooperation and sustained investment in communities. When these foundations are weakened, decades of advocacy, funding and community-led action are put at risk. For young people living with and affected by HIV, the question is whether their priorities will continue to be heard and supported as global health institutions change.
[Group photo with members of the WHO Youth Council during the opening ceremony of the World Health Summit with Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of WHO]
Protecting the HIV response means protecting trust
These concerns came into focus during a special side event with UNAIDS at the World Health Summit, which explored how to safeguard the global HIV response amid wider UN system reform and the UNAIDS transition. The UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) report on the transition and integration of UNAIDS in the UN system outlines a proposed operating model for a transformed Joint Programme, including its configuration and a transition plan. While this report sets out recommendations for a path forward, they also raise important questions about the future of the HIV response. At stake is not only the future of institutions, but the hard-won gains and community-led progress built over decades.
The challenges facing the HIV response are not new, and much of the past year has been spent grappling with what comes next. This transition presents an opportunity to confront the system's weaknesses and rethink how it serves communities, rather than simply manage the consequences of change. The NGO Delegation to the UNAIDS PCB remains crucial in bringing community perspectives into decision-making, but representation alone is not enough. Reform must mean accountability: acknowledging where the system has fallen short, anticipating the consequences of change and ensuring communities do not bear the cost of decisions they had little power to shape.
For young people, these concerns are particularly pressing. The absence of a functioning, dedicated youth team at UNAIDS raises questions about how young people's priorities will continue to be championed and how their meaningful engagement in the HIV response will be sustained. When dedicated capacity disappears, it is not just a question of who represents young people, but whether the structures needed to listen and respond to them remain in place.
“Reform is never simple, whether you’re navigating it from within an institution or experiencing its impact from the outside. But through all this change, trust matters. Communities must be kept informed about decisions that affect them and have a meaningful role in shaping what comes next.”
Young people and communities have helped drive progress through years of advocacy, service delivery, accountability and more. That progress cannot be protected through commitments alone. It depends on whether institutions or people in positions of power communicate openly, involve communities in decisions and demonstrate that their voices can influence outcomes.
Trust is not maintained by asking communities to have faith in the system; it is earned through transparency, accountability and action. Reform must strengthen the connections between institutions and the communities they serve, not weaken them. Without meaningful engagement and follow-through, the consequences extend beyond disrupted programmes to the erosion of trust that underpins an effective HIV response.
[From left to right: Group photo with members of the WHO Youth Council; Photo with colleagues from the Robert Carr Fund, Inti Muda and Youth LEAD Mongolia]
The future of global health cannot leave young people behind (but sadly, this is being felt)
Y+ Global’s engagement at the WHO Youth Council and the World Health Summit comes as the ground beneath global health is shifting. As priorities change and resources tighten, hard-won space and influence can quickly become expendable. Will institutions continue to make room for young people when attention moves elsewhere, or is youth leadership valued only when circumstances allow? Young people should not have to fight for their place every time the system changes.
When health systems weaken, infrastructure collapses or political commitments fall away, those most affected must not become the easiest to overlook. Young people living with and affected by HIV have a right to shape the decisions that affect their lives, and their leadership must remain central to the future of the global response.
For Y+ Global, protecting the HIV response means more than preserving programmes or funding. It means safeguarding the spaces, resources and relationships that enable young people to advocate for their health and rights and represent their communities. As global health evolves, change must strengthen rather than sideline youth leadership. Young people’s participation cannot be optional, and the needs of the communities they represent must not be lost in the process.
Young people have helped build the progress on which the global HIV response stands today. They must not be the first to lose their place when systems change, nor the last to be heard when decisions are made. Reform must build on the leadership of young people and communities, not undo the progress they have fought so hard to achieve.