Ilona Kickbusch



"We must use the window of political opportunity for decisive action and enlightened leadership that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide to address a key set of local and global risks of our time—global health security risks. The increasing recognition of global health security needs to be integrated into the post-2015 development agenda and SDGs."


Global Health Security

Governing Pandemics Initiative // Pandemic Treaty

Ilona Kickbusch was one of the project leads at the Global Health Centre/IHEID of the Governing Pandemics Initiative. All materials related to this initiative can be accessed here: www.governingpandemics.org. She curated together with Haik Nikogosian a series of contributions to the British Medical Journal focusing on a potential pandemic treaty. Access the flip book with all contributions here.

WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, Berlin

Ilona Kickbusch was engaged in setting up this hub which will strengthen intelligence specifically for pandemics and epidemics by striving for better data, better analytics, and better decisions pandemichub.who.int. Embedded in WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme and building on consultations with hundreds of experts from different disciplines, sectors, and regions, it will leverage WHO’s unique convening power across nearly 200 countries to foster global solutions. Watch the video of the inauguration with Chancellor Merkel and the WHO Director General.

Global Preparedness Monitoring Board

Ilona Kickbusch has been re-appointed a member of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) - an independent monitoring and accountability body to ensure preparedness for global health crises co-convened by the World Health Organization and the World Bank Group. more

Comprised of political leaders, agency principals and world-class experts, the Board provides an independent and comprehensive appraisal for policy makers and the world about progress towards increased preparedness and response capacity for disease outbreaks and other emergencies with health consequences. It was created in response to recommendations by the UN Secretary General’s Global Health Crises Task Force in 2017 of which Ilona Kickbusch was also a member. more

The GPMB issued its first report  “A World at Risk” in September 2019. Two more report have followed since. In response to the COVID19 pandemic the GPMB has issued a call for scaled up response. This has led to an international pledging marathon spearheaded (with a number of countries) by the European Commission global-response.europa.eu.

Global Health Security has gained increasing attention in the global health governance debate. One recent publication explores three interlocking functions of health security.

A recent publication edited by Albrecht Schnabel and Ilona Kickbusch explores the interface between the security sector and the health sector.

COVID-19 Pandemic
Ilona Kickbusch has contributed some short editorials, blogs and commentaries in relation to the governance of the COVID-19 pandemic.
They include:

Ebola Crisis: A panel of independent experts to assess WHO's response in the Ebola outbreak
The WHO Director-General commissioned a panel of outside independent experts to undertake an assessment on all aspects of WHO’s response in the Ebola outbreak. This is in response to a resolution passed during the Ebola Special Session of the Executive Board in January 2015. Ilona Kickbusch was one of the 6 panel members. The panel has since submitted its report which can be accessed together with WHO’s response. She has since reported these findings to many different initiatives engaged in improving global health security, more.

Chatham House
Ilona Kickbusch is an associate fellow at Chatham House, Center on Global Health Security

Health Security Conference
Ilona Kickbusch serves on the steering committee of this conference that was first organized in 2019. more