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As we mark 5 years since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world continues to face numerous epidemics of emerging and re-emerging diseases, including mpox, cholera, avian influenza, chikungunya and dengue. Concurrently, long-standing diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria continue to account for millions of premature and preventable deaths globally. Despite the valuable lessons in disease prevention and control during both pandemic and non-pandemic periods, gaps remain in our responses to global public health challenges, including limits to our ability to consolidate, share and analyse data to generate the evidence that policy-makers need to make the best decisions possible, at both local and global levels. Addressing these gaps requires sustained investment, development and retention of modelling and analytical capabilities, and collaboration across jurisdictions, both within and across regions, with the aim of building a united and effective global health response system. Capacity is also strengthened from sharing knowledge about the state of the art in research, and on best practices, and learning in international fora such as conferences. Efforts to enhance modelling capabilities are particularly crucial for resource-constrained countries, many of which are located in the Global South, where the gaps in data collection and analytics training are most pronounced.1