Medicines for All, All for Medicines

From the start of 2023, students from UAEM Europe have engaged in dynamic collaborations, impactful initiatives, and unwavering advocacy, to effectively dismantle access barriers rooted at their universities and beyond.

To kick off the year, one representative from our European Coordinating Committee was invited to attend the WHO Youth Council inaugural meeting in Geneva, held from January 27th to 30th. The event provided a platform for representatives from 22 diverse youth organisations, both from health and non-health backgrounds, to come together and discuss pertinent issues. UAEM's participation further solidified its reputation as the only youth-driven organisation focused on access issues. UAEM members remain actively engaged in the Youth Council, contributing their perspectives on access barriers within key health topics, such as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and universal health coverage (UHC). 

In April, we hosted our international conference, Together for Global Health Justice, bringing together over 70 students from nine countries in Europe and North America, and including new representation from Lithuania, Italy, and Cyprus. The conference agenda encompassed various workshops, including technical sessions on access to medicines, covering content and skills related to advocating for equitable access. Engaging skills workshops on campus organising, debating, and campaign strategizing empowered participants to become effective agents of change. Additionally, UAEM-focused workshops delved into research projects and campaigns centred around pushing forward the implementation of our Equitable Technology Access Framework (ETAF) at universities across the region. A highlight of the conference was the keynote panel, "Decolonising Global Health and the Fight for Equitable Accessible to Medicines.", which focused on the critical link between global justice and health, emphasising the need to challenge postcolonial structures perpetuating inequality and oppression within our work. 

In June, the Global Leadership Annual Meeting hosted by UAEM brought together leaders from various parts of the world to meet online. Representatives from Latin America, North America, Europe, and Korea joined this gathering, showcasing the organisation's global reach and impact. The meeting served as a platform to discuss regional priorities and explore opportunities for cross-border collaborations. Through productive discussions, UAEM leaders outlined approaches in advancing UAEM's mission of ensuring equitable access to health technologies worldwide.

In Case You Missed It - Our Chapter Highlight 

‘Lucky with Your Health’ Art Exhibition, UAEM Aarhus 

In April, the UAEM Aarhus chapter showcased their creativity and advocacy through an engaging art exhibition titled 'Lucky with your Health.' This captivating event explored two significant themes: Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and the pressing issue of discrimination within access to medicines. Through the medium of art, the exhibition skillfully shed light on these critical topics, provoking thought and raising awareness among attendees.

Upcoming Projects

UAEM UK launched their TenU Campaign earlier this month! TenU is an international collaboration of 10 university technology transfer offices, six of which are based in the UK. In the upcoming months, UAEM UK will focus on ensuring research outputs from the network are equitable, accessible and affordable - watch this space! 

Thank you for your continuous support of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) Europe!

2022 has been the first post-covid year in which we saw a return to UAEM Europe as we know. In-person meetings took place that connected young activists across the organisation. On campus, chapters rebuilt their presence. Still, UAEM counts fewer members than it used to and we continue to feel the pandemic aftermath.

As an organisation, we have focused on building a community of skilled advocates at universities across Europe - and we have intensified our work to this end in the second half of the year. 

Ensuring a strong and aligned leadership for UAEM

• The European Empowerment Committee (ECC) and European Board came together for the first in-person European Leadership meeting in September 2022. The meeting over three days enabled the leadership to build connections and to together define a vision for UAEM centred around the membership. At the meeting, UAEM leadership recognised the need to bring back in-person training opportunities, for example (see below for more info). Further, the ECC concluded a successful handover in Amsterdam in October and the UAEM Europe Board held its first post-pandemic in-person meeting.

“Universities hold the key!” is heard loud and clear across university campuses

• In November 2022, UAEM Europe hosted the annual access to medicines week under the slogan of “Universities hold the key!”. Chapters organised a wide range of activities which included film screenings, panel debates and creative activism actions. We also highlighted key UAEM principles via graphics on social media. Feel free to follow us on instagram @uaem_europe!

Enabling training for the next generation of access to medicines advocates

• Soft skill training can support UAEM members to strategise campaigns, build up a chapter capacity & engage others on access to medicines issues. Often seen as the backbone of our work, training empowers UAEM to be “better” advocates and organisers. This year, the training camp hosted 10 UAEM members from four countries, representing European, national and chapter leadership. Over three days, all attendees gained new skills for leadership, such as team building and strategic planning.

• At the national levels, chapters of Germany, Denmark and the UK came together to host their national training weekend. Here, they focused on knowledge building as well as organising themselves.

As you can see, UAEM activists continue to actively advocate for fair and equitable access to drugs, diagnostics and vaccines for everyone. These past months we have focused on rebuilding and strengthening our membership. In 2023, we look forward to seeing youth advocacy grow further. 

Your donations are making it possible for us to continue this important work. It is only with your help that we can keep advocating for global health justice across European universities. In the name of the full UAEM Europe Board, I sincerely thank you for your continued support! 

We wish you a wonderful end of the year and a peaceful start into the new year. We cannot wait to let you know about what we will be up to in 2023!

In May, UAEM Europe hosted its first European Conference in over three years! With more than 50 young people joining from five UAEM countries, the conference successfully brought together a new generation of enthusiastic advocates for an inspirational and fruitful exchange - from new members that had joined during the pandemic finally being able to meet in-person, to simultaneously reigniting relationships between our UAEM veterans. The weekend saw the execution of a dynamic agenda, providing in-depth technical education on access content, whilst upskilling our members on creative activism techniques for impactful advocacy - and not forgetting our insightful guest speakers providing the latest updates from the field.

After over three years of online collaboration and advocacy, the conference served as a vital platform to re-energise youth within the access movement. Following this energetic and impactful weekend, UAEM Europe is excited to continue our fight stronger than before. 

Global Health Engagement in Geneva Following on from the European Conference, the summer months saw UAEM members travelling to Geneva to attend various global health events: 

• In May, UAEM members attended the 75th World Health Assembly, hosted by the World Health Organisation. During these weeks, these members provided policy insights from an access perspective towards a wide range of topics, including the Global Strategy for Tuberculosis and the 2021-2030 roadmap for NTDs.   

• Later on in June, members from UAEM participated in the World Trade Organisation’s 12th Ministerial Conference, one of the most important events for the COVID-19 pandemic and the access movement. During the conference, the Member States discussed the TRIPS Waiver, proposed by India and South Africa in 2020, as a means to ensure equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and treatments across the globe, and thereby to bring an end to this pandemic. UAEM members worked hard throughout the meetings to follow the negotiations closely and report back to the UAEM community, working with civil society organisations to push for the adoption of the TRIPS Waiver.  

Gender and Health Learning Series Throughout these past months UAEM, in coordination with Feministische Medizin e.V. (Feminist Medicine), continued to host enlightening webinars, as part of our online learning series focused on Gender and Health. Our most recent discussions have addressed intersectional activism between feminists and access advocates, as well as the challenges non-binary patients face within the health care system. 

Getting Ready for the Upcoming Academic Year For the first time since 2019, UAEM Europe will be hosting its annual European Leadership Meeting in-person! This meeting in Berlin will bring together our youth leaders from across the region in advance of the academic semester, to plan for a highly impactful year ahead. 

In case you missed it:  Check out the guest blog for MSF Access Campaign by Rebecca Hotchkin from UAEM UK on synergies of access to medicines and climate justice. 

These past few months have been of significant importance to youth in the access to medicines movement. It is with your support that UAEM Europe is able to continuously, and meaningfully, advocate for equitable access to life-saving medicines. We are grateful for your donations and support for our cause.

Thank you for your continuous support of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines Europe.

On the 11th March, we witnessed the world enter the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. And as we mark this grave milestone this month, billions of people still lack access to essential treatments and vaccinations, pushing us further as an organisation to continue our advocacy in the field. The members of UAEM Europe have been working tirelessly in all campaigning efforts to end COVID monopolies, and promote equitable and affordable access to medicines at all levels, both within and from the region. Over the past few months, we have; 

• Focused the spotlight on Germany’s position on the TRIPS Waiver In response to the government remarks defaulting on their support for the TRIPS Waiver, UAEM Germany has been campaigning alongside allies to   demand the government backs the temporary patent suspension through the waiver, in order to protect and saves lives worldwide.
• Launched new research exploring university’s response on equitable access to COVID-19 health technologies UAEM UK published new research on 35 UK universities and discovered their limited engagement in taking measures that would promote equitable access to these technologies from the first year of the pandemic, which yet again highlighted the need for these institutions to adopt equitable access policies. 

Whilst we work to bolster our advocacy and research efforts, UAEM Europe has simultaneously seen various successes through our empowerment activities over the previous few months, as we have focused on educating and up-skilling young people across the region, with our key activities including; 

• Gender and Health Webinar Series: UAEM Europe, working alongside FEMMED*, launched a 4-part Gender and Health webinar series; exploring the depths and intricacies of gender health and medicines; with topics including insights into the challenges of the trans and gender diverse community in the healthcare system. The series has so far reached over 150 people, with further webinars under planning. 
• Membership Training Weekend: Members from across the UK came together in-person for the first time since before the pandemic to host their national training weekend. The 2-day training supported local coordinators to strengthen their advocacy efforts at their universities located across the country. 
• European Conference: After a 2-year break, we have officially announced the dates for our annual European Conference, in May 2022. We have been working on this large-scale exchange as a means to bring together over 150 enthusiastic young people from our eight active countries - and more! - to reform transnational partnerships and for provide high-quality technical and soft skills training on health advocacy to young people.

As we continue to see the everyday importance of fighting access to medicines challenges across the globe, UAEM Europe looks forward to a successful academic year ahead! We are grateful for your donations and continued support for our cause.