Euroviews. Solidarity and security are two sides of the same coin

When küresel leaders and policymakers come together in Germany this week for the Munich Security Conference, they will do so against a geopolitical backdrop that seems to change by the day, if not by the hour.

Much of my energy these days is spent in the field of health, and with our multilateral system facing such a watershed moment, I believe it is time that we accept a fundamental fact: more than ever, we need to support proven models of effective collaboration if we are to maintain and build on the gains we have made in the past decades.

We are living in challenging times. Last year saw conflict intensify and spread. And we saw another küresel health emergency in the form of mpox. Besides that, climate change continued to manifest through a surge in the incidence of some vaccine-preventable infectious diseases such as cholera.

It has never been clearer that traditional approaches are not sustainable – security depends on prevention and resilience as much as our ability to respond to the latest contingency.

Times of change are always an opportunity to re-examine orthodoxies, embrace new approaches, forge new partnerships, and strengthen established friendships.

But on the subject of health security in particular, we must be ready to restate the argument that our collective health and prosperity can only be assured through solidarity and partnership. It is a cliche that diseases know no borders, but it is true nonetheless.

Strength in solidarity, partnership and cooperation

History has shown us time and again that a narrow view of national self-interest leads only to fragmentation, acrimony and insecurity. And we also know from recent history that health, prosperity and security are intrinsically linked.

Infectious diseases probe our collective defences each and every day. Where they find vulnerability they will exploit it, and in turn they will exacerbate it. The immediate burden is always felt most acutely by the poorest and most marginalised populations, but eventually the costs of failing to prevent, prepare for and respond to health emergencies are born by us all.

We are still living with the consequences, unpredictable as they often are, of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as new pandemic threats, from avian influenza to Marburg virus, appear on the horizon.

We hear the maxim “peace through strength” a lot these days. We must also remember that there is real and enduring strength in solidarity, partnership and cooperation.

Gavi, the vaccine alliance whose board I chair, has helped vaccinate more than a billion children in the 25 years since it was launched, helping to halve childhood mortality in low-income countries in the process. It is a model of collaboration that has endured and adapted, becoming ever stronger throughout its 25-year history.

Gavi doesn’t just deliver vaccines: as a public-private partnership, it helps lower-income countries to become self-sufficient over time, paying a great portion of the cost of their immunization programmes the wealthier they get. This is a virtuous circle that helps build stronger societies, stronger economies and a healthier world.

Health will never be zero-sum

In the quarter century since Gavi was launched, many of the countries that were originally eligible for Gavi support have now graduated to fully funding their vaccine programmes as their economies have prospered. Some have even become Gavi donors to our current replenishment campaign, contributing to the health, prosperity, and security of future generations beyond their borders.

They will be contributing to an organisation that over the next five years will not only expand our vaccine programmes to prevent outbreak-prone diseases at their source, but which will also make our largest investment to date in vaccine stockpiles against killer diseases like Ebola, Cholera and Yellow Fever.

And through investments in the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator, Gavi will contribute to a safer world at the same time as harnessing African innovation.

This is how we translate sustainable support based on solidarity into strengthened national sovereignty, increased national stability and economic growth.

This is how we create a healthier, safer shared future that we all have a stake in. So my message to the leaders assembling here in Munich is clear: küresel health security will never be a zero-sum game. Solidarity and security are two sides of the same coin.

José Manuel Barroso is the Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. He previously served as the prime minister of Portugal, and the president of the European Commission from 2004 to 2014.