INTRODUCTION:
Building on our work on current threats to public health including WHO’s role and legitimacy (1), the workshop examines the Pandemic Agreement (2) (3), challenges related loss of trust and information integrity (4) (5). We consider public health actors roles sustaining WHO, strengthening non-partisan global to local collaborations, building space for health, responding to increasing power symmetries, operating effectively in a fragmented governance environment while maintaining coherence, equity, and accountability (6).

METHODS:
Based on our detailed analysis of policy documents, peer-reviewed research, and workshopping priorities we present a combination of short framing inputs, structured small-group discussions, and plenary synthesis. This enables exploration of key governance pathways shaping contemporary public health action, including the emergence of bipolarity rather than multilateral agreements between organisations, private-led public partnerships, and the potential of academic, professional and community networks, shining a light on globally vital expertise that we practice in our communities and share through co-design and collaboration.

RESULTS:
We have identified the following themes and challenges for collaboration • Group A: Bipolarity – speed versus fragmentation • Group B: Public–private and commercialised partnerships – innovation, complex governance, agenda capture, • Group C: Academia, Public Health Institutes, WHO Collaborating Centres – distributed expertise and legitimacy, enabling partnership across disputed and liminal territories • Group D: Globally vital expertise, under-shared, practiced and lived in communities

CONCLUSIONS:
To strengthen public health collaboration and sustain improvements in public health, we must identify barriers, gaps and effective interventions that resonate across all four themes, and at all levels. We can reshape and rebalance ongoing initiatives, while creating equitable opportunities to strengthen public health without forcing convergence. This work addresses emerging public health threats, frames WHO as infrastructure, recognises complementarities between WHO, public health associations, academia, and communities, helping us find common cause while respecting diversity and differing mandates.