A Year of Progress: The Partnership Reflects on 2025
The Partnership for International Politics and Diplomacy for Health (a joint initiative between Karolinska Institutet and the Stockholm School of Economics) has released its Annual Report for 2025, marking a year of significant milestones across all four of its core work streams. We are sincerely grateful for collaboration and partnerships with many colleagues across the world and looking forward to a continously productive 2026
The second cohort of the Executive Program on International Politics and Diplomacy for Health concluded in August 2025, bringing together 26 participants from 25 countries. The 2026 edition is already underway, and the growing community of fellows and faculty now numbers 135 colleagues spanning the globe.
The Health Diplomacy Institutional Network continued to expand its reach, convening workshops in Geneva and Berlin, and hosting events at major global health gatherings including the Prince Mahidol Award Conference in Bangkok and the World Health Summit in Berlin. With 37 member institutions across six regions, the Network developed a Guidance Document identifying five core competencies for effective health diplomacy training worldwide.
On the research front, a consortium of more than 40 academics and practitioners convened to produce a forthcoming Lancet Series on Diplomacy for Health. Four papers were submitted for peer review in December 2025, covering topics from analytical frameworks for health diplomacy to foresight-based recommendations for the field beyond 2030.
A fourth workstream called Paradigm Shifts for Global Health was initiated in October 2025, focused on generating independent analysis and inputs to reforms of the international system for health. In January 2026, the Partnership published a comment in The Lancet proposing four paradigm shifts to guide the global health reform agenda.
Read the full Annual Report at Annual report 2025