Shifting global health leadership, AI, and climate change are set to shape the health agenda this year, amid funding cuts and workforce shortages.
What are the main challenges in global health this year? We reached out to experts to highlight the priorities that are likely to dominate the agenda, and the topics expected to take centre stage in 2026.
From shifts in global health leadership to climate change and artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, these issues will shape policy, drive debate, and determine who leads the global conversation.
Who takes the lead in global health?
Global health faced a major shock last year when Donald Trump’s administration in the United States announced unprecedented cuts to humanitarian and development aid.
Since then, several countries have followed suit, shifting their priorities and limiting resources for international health programmes.
“Recent funding pauses for global health initiatives are creating headwinds for progress, with effects that could persist into 2026 if uncertainty continues,” warned Anja Langenbucher, Europe office director at the Gates Foundation. “This comes at a moment when child mortality is edging back up for the first time this century.”
She noted that there are still reasons for “cautious optimism”, pointing to AI-enabled tools that can improve health service targeting, next generation vaccines, and climate-smart agriculture that enhances resilience and productivity.
“With stable platforms and more stable funding in place – areas where the EU and others are already well placed to lead – 2026 could be a year when distant possibilities in health become realistic solutions,” Langenbucher told Euronews Health.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria highlighted malaria as a key challenge for the months ahead.
The organisation said stalled progress on stemming malaria and growing drug resistance exemplify the consequences of underfunded and poorly integrated prevention, primary care, and community delivery systems.
“Taken together, the year ahead will be defined by hard choices, but also by an opportunity to refocus global health around impact, integration, and country leadership – with the ultimate measure being whether we can protect the most vulnerable from entirely preventable diseases,” a spokesperson from the Global Fund said.
Growing opportunities for technological innovation
AI and other new technologies are expected to transform healthcare this year, driving advances in diagnostics, drug development, and workload reduction for healthcare professionals.
Philips, a global health technology company, pointed to AI’s potential for reducing healthcare workers’ daily workload as one of the most promising advances.
“Healthcare is entering a new phase, with AI creating new possibilities for how care is delivered and experienced, and helping make sense of an increasingly complex system,” a Philips spokesperson told Euronews Health.
By easing administrative pressure, clinicians can focus more of their time and attention on patient care, while AI works in the background to improve efficiency, the spokesperson added.
Across Europe, biotechnology is also advancing rapidly, with the recently presented EU Biotech Act set to take the centre stage in policy discussions.
“If we had to sum up, what we expect in 2026 is the year of biotechnology for Europe to contribute to strategic autonomy, to the competitiveness of the continent,” a spokesperson from Spanish biotech pharmaceutical HIPRA told Euronews health.
HIPRA also highlighted biotech’s growing role in security and biodefence – both to counter biological threats and to enable a rapid response to health emergencies such as future pandemics through advanced diagnostics, vaccines, and other medical countermeasures.
“All these infrastructures, all these investments prepare us for any kind of threat, be it natural or a pathogen that jumps from human animals or created in laboratories,” HIPRA’s spokesperson added, saying this preparedness will be key to Europe’s competitiveness.
Healthcare systems and workforces under pressure
Another major challenge healthcare systems are facing is a growing workforce shortage amid rising demand, ageing populations, and worsening mental health among professionals.
“We can expect workforce constraints will remain central to health policy debates in 2026,” said Katherine de Bienassis, health policy analyst at Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
She told Euronews Health that persistent shortages of nurses, primary care physicians, and specialists are common across OECD countries, reducing system capacity and exacerbating inequities.
“Methods for ensuring health system productivity are likely to become increasingly central as systems strive to deliver more with fewer resources, while also maintaining patient outcomes,” de Bienassis added.
Climate change and emerging threats
As the effects of climate change intensify, new health challenges emerge – from faster spread of mosquito-borne diseases to impacts of biodiversity loss and rising pollution levels.
“Science shows no sign that this [climate] crisis is slowing, while EU policy attention remains focused elsewhere,” Génon K. Jensen, director at the Health and Environment Alliance, told Euronews Health.
She said policymakers should seize the opportunity to reduce costs, boost productivity, and prevent disease by prioritising environmental and climate policies – including the revision of the EU’s chemicals regulation.
“People’s health should be central to this year’s climate resilience proposals, with nature-based solutions as a cornerstone of climate adaptation,” Jensen said.
Competitiveness tug of war
The pharmaceutical sector has been navigating an unstable trade environment in recent months, marked by tariffs and geopolitical tensions that will continue to shape markets in 2026.
“Europeans have been turning a blind eye to the fact that Americans pay two to three times more for patented drugs than they do,” said Elizabeth Kuiper, associate director of the European Policy Centre.
She added that Trump's threat of tariffs on pharmaceuticals served as a wake-up call to approach the sector more strategically, as one of the key drivers of innovation and economic growth for the EU.
An opportunity for new focuses
2026 could also be a year for new health topics to move up the agenda.
“We also really hope to see the growing awareness of the gender health gap that we saw in 2025 result in dedicated funding, and strong political commitment, like an EU Women's Health Strategy,” said Ffion Storer-Jones, senior policy and advocacy officer at DSW, an international non-profit working in sexual and reproductive health.
She also warned that growing rates of sexually transmitted infections and antimicrobial resistance will remain a cross-border public health threat that must not be overlooked.
“We really hope that 2026 does not become another year of neglect in the global health 'panic and neglect' cycle,” Storer-Jones said.
