Yunus skips World Health Summit, Zubaida Rahman to speak

Former interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus will not attend the three-day World Health Summit 2026 in Berlin, while Dr Zubaida Rahman, wife of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, is scheduled to speak at the event.

The summit began on Sunday, October 11, and will continue until October 13 under the theme ‘From Crisis to Resilience: Innovation for Health’.

According to the organisers, Yunus was scheduled to speak on Grameen Healthtech Limited at a separate session. However, he cancelled his participation at the last minute due to health reasons, said Anna Stormer, the summit’s director of communications and press. Senior Communications Manager Marie Olf also confirmed the cancellation.

Messages were sent to Lamia Morshed, executive director of the Yunus Centre, seeking comment, but no response was received.

Meanwhile, Zubaida Rahman is set to attend the summit as scheduled. The organisers’ speaker profile describes her as a physician who also serves as vice-president of the Ziaur Rahman Foundation. It says she is actively involved in public health reform, expanding access to healthcare and improving primary healthcare facilities across the country.

The development comes amid a petition reportedly sent about three weeks ago by five European organisations urging the summit organisers to reconsider Yunus’s participation over concerns about the measles situation in Bangladesh.

The organisations named were the South Asia Democratic Forum in Belgium, the European Bangladesh Forum in Europe and the UK, the Working Group Bangladesh in Germany, the Earth Civilization Network and the Freedom and Justice Alliance.

The petitioners called for an independent review of concerns raised in various reports about disruptions to routine immunisation, vaccine availability and supply, and emergency vaccination programmes. They argued that Yunus, as the former chief adviser to the interim government, should be held accountable for the situation.

They also urged the organisers to reconsider his invitation or, if it remained in place, ask him to publicly address the measles situation in Bangladesh. They further called for affected families, paediatricians and independent public health experts to be included in the discussions.

sks