INTRODUCTION:
Building on our work on WHO’s role and legitimacy, the workshop examines the Pandemic Agreement, emerging challenges related to misinformation and information integrity (2), and how public health actors can operate effectively in a fragmented governance environment while maintaining coherence, equity, and accountability.

METHODS:
Through a combination of short framing inputs, structured small-group discussions, and plenary synthesis, participants will examine key governance pathways shaping contemporary public health action, including bilateralism, public–private partnerships, 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: Bilateralism – 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 • Group D: Globally vital expertise, practised and lived in communities

CONCLUSIONS:
To strengthen public health collaboration and sustain improvements in public health, we must identify barriers and effective interventions that across all four themes, and at all levels, aligning ongoing initiatives without forcing convergence, identifying complementarities between WHO, public health associations, academia, and communities, finding our common purpose while respecting diversity and differing mandates.