Policymakers: Sustainable Finance Framework for Global Health Achievable by 2030

G20 & G7 Policymakers, Financiers and the Global Health Community believe a New Sustainable Finance Framework for Global Health is Achievable by 2030

 

21-22 June United Nations, Geneva: during the two-day annual Health20 (H20) Summit hosted at the UN Palais, G20 and G7 policy-makers, politicians, International Organisations, the global health community, economists and investors are coming together to discuss the future role of health within the new Geopolitical Order and the need for greater cohesiveness between the G20 and G7 Presidencies.

Day one of the summit recognised that governments in the aftermath of COVID-19 now accept the principle that spending on health is a valuable economic and social investment.

To meet future needs of highly indebted countries that cannot currently increase their spending on health and climate change, speakers will call for a sustainable finance framework for global health that eases the sovereign debt burden so that domestic resources can be repurposed, matched by multilateral institutions, with catalytic funds from the private sector.

The launch of a report during the summit will provide a roadmap and toolkit for governments, the health community and investors to help bridge the dead valley of communication between both sectors and to unlock collaboration opportunities to close existing funding gaps in health that is expected to exceed US$ 16.9 trillion by 2050.

With seven years left to catch up in delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The H20 Summit will demonstrate the increasing interdependence of significant global challenges including geopolitical tensions, biodiversity loss, energy, food and water scarcity and climate change challenges.

Given that COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a global health threat, speakers will stress that health must not fade away from global and national political debates and will call on G20+ Leaders, Ministers of Health and Finance to tigger a systems rethink and move up from a reactive health finance approach to a proactive one.

Politicians from across the G20+ countries will call on a stronger alignment and future coordination with the G20 and G7 as policy-priorities set in multilateral fora have to trickle down more effectively to be implemented sustainably by national policy-makers for a new Global Health Architecture to meet the challenges that we are facing today, tomorrow, and for the next generation.

Speakers at the Summit Said:

“I welcome the discussions at the H20 summit, which are taking place at a critical time, as world leaders and multilateral organizations discuss a new order for the global health financing architecture. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that when health is at risk, everything is at risk, which means that financing health is not a cost, but an investment in economic and social stability and security.” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Director-General, WHO

 

“India’s G20 Presidency aims to converge, consolidate, and create a healthier tomorrow and thereby has reinforced the critical importance of cohesiveness in multi-lateral forums, particularly amongst G20 and G7 health agendas. We as G20 countries collectively carry the responsibility to turn the lessons learnt from COVID-19 into concrete actions by strengthening Global Health Architecture, facilitating equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics through establishing a Medical Countermeasures Platform and scaling up digital health solutions to aid health service delivery and bridge digital divide through particular focus on global south. We look forward to the enriching discussions in the H20Summit and their value addition to G20 deliberations.” Lav Agarwal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare India

“Most governments in the G7 & G20 now accept the principle that spending on health is a valuable economic and social investment. That is an important step. However, the task now is for the G20 & G7 to build a sustainable funding framework for global health that attracts resources from domestic public funds, multilateral institutions and the private sector, I believe that is now achievable.” Alan Donnelly, Chair of The G20 & G7 Health and Development Partnership

“The term Sustainable Finance in Health has been used in 18 out of 44 Communiques within G20 and G7 fora in the last 7 years. Still, there has been a lack of clarity of in its definition and how it can be used effectively between the health and investment community to unlock further private or impact capital. We must bridge the dead valley of communication – We have already done this for the climate change agenda.” Hatice Beton, Executive Director, G20 & G7 Health and Development Partnership

“With its wider network, the Health20 provides a critical platform to support the convergence of G7 and G20 agendas. The G7 Presidency is committed to follow up on the health-related outcomes of the G7 Hiroshima Summit including to enabling discussions between the health and finance community for the advancement of Universal Health Coverage.” Satoshi Ezoe, Director, Global Health Strategy Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan

“The H20 summit provides a timely opportunity to open a dialogue so the investor community can speak more effectively to health ministries, Development Finance Institutions and the global health community, to help close some of the existing funding gaps through their catalytic investments.” Dame Angela Eagle DBE, Member of the UK House of Commons, Global Ambassador G20 & G7 Health, and Development Partnership

New G20 & G7 logo

We are pleased to announce our new G20 & G7 Health and Development Partnership Logo in the side-lines of our technical meeting with our partners, ambassadors and G7 delegates.

The logo reflects and builds on the increased collaboration we have had with both the G20 & G7 Presidencies and Ministries over the last 7 years since our inception.

In times of multipolar challenges there is an increased need to converge and strengthen multilateral agendas and create stronger ties  between public and private sectors to tackle global health challenges and meet the UN SDG3 targets by 2030! Read more

Join us in Geneva for the Health20 Summit

The annual Health20 Summit is approaching on 21-22 June 2023, hosted by the G20 Health and Development Partnership at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. Put it in your calendar!

The two-day Summit will see policymakers, global health and finance experts, and representatives from the private and public sectors discuss pressing global health issues, including health in the digital age, AMR, and sustainable financing to make concrete recommendations to the G20 and G7.

We will be launching our Finance Toolkit Report, which considers what sustainable finance means for health and aims to bridge the disconnect between the investor and health communities and promote ESG investments for health.

We look forward to welcoming you at the Summit and joining our discussions!

A Call To Action to H20 leaders

The G20 Health & Development Partnership has issued a Call to Action to G20 leaders following a two-day H20 Summit at the WHO in Geneva. The Summit – organised by @G20HDP and co-hosted by the T20 – brought together key players in the global health policy community with over 70 expert speakers making recommendations on investment in pandemic preparedeness, preventing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and anti-microbial resistance (AMR); as well as on global health architecture, digital health and diagnostics.

The Call to Action below has been signed by international health NGOs, politicians and academics. It calls on the G20 to put the new Financial Intermediary Fund a long-term footing with sustainable funding. The Call to Action also urges the G20 and G7, IMF, the World Bank and the Paris Club to tackle the growing debt crisis resulting from the pandemic with measures, such as, debt to health swaps.

The G20 and WHO, with the support of multilateral development banks, are urged to help create regional Centres of Excellence for collaborative R&D and manufacture of diagnostics and therapeutics. The G20 Digital Health Taskforce should be given a mandate for addressing equity, evidence and scale up of digital interventions across health systems with a focus on primary care

It also recommends a new permanent ‘structured dialogue’ to tackle AMR a new comprehensive plan of action to reduce the incidence of NCDs such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.

See the Call To Action here

Video interview – lessons learned from more than two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Together with other global health leaders, Alan Donnelly, and Hatice Küçük Beton, Convener and Executive Director of the G20 Health and Development Partnership (G20HDP), share their perspectives and lessons learned from more than two years of the COVID-19 Pandemic in an interview with the Sabin Vaccine Institute in April 2022.

They highlight that we have to move away from a system in which rich countries chose to gift to low- and middle-income countries in moments of crisis and adopt a new financial architecture for pandemic preparedness that is inclusive, transparent and has accountability mechanisms in place. Alan says: “Our role as advocates is to absolutely knock on everyone’s doors as we’ve been doing for the last several years to make sure health is at the top of the political agenda”, ensuring that health is not treated in the same way as natural disasters.

A Financial Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response was established by the World Bank on June 30, 2022. Since 2019, the G20HDP has been advocating for a new and inclusive global health architecture and new financing mechanisms for health and is working closely with the key players to strengthen its governance, equity and accountability.

Read ‘A shared commitment to secure our shared future’ blog post here 

Watch the video

Our condolences on the assassination of Shinzo Abe

We are utterly shocked and saddened by the terrible news that Mr Abe has been murdered today.

Prime Minister Abe was a giant on the world stage – with an extraordinary impact both on Japan and the global community.

To his great credit – he was fully engaged in the democratic process, campaigning, as he had done throughout his life, when his life was taken.

In terms of his work on health, he brought together Health and Finance Ministers in 2019 for the first time during the Japan G20 Presidency – pre COVID. That initiative was typically forward looking and has been continued regularly by other presidencies and has been critical in the global response to the COVID pandemic.

Within the G20 Health and Development Partnership, our thoughts are with Mr Abe’s family and all of the people of Japan at this tragic moment.

 

G20 Health & Development Partnership announces Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta as new Global Ambassador

“I am excited to be nominated G20 Health & Development Partnership as their Global Ambassador. G20 is playing a crucial role in shaping the global agenda, and the efforts through this partnership will help push the right ideas for health through G20 in Indonesia in 2022 and going forward. It is a noble cause, and we must do all within our means to support this critical effort for sustainable development” 

Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta Founder, Health Parliament

 

Financing new global health emergency framework is within reach

On 20-21 June, Health Ministers and Finance Ministers gathered in Indonesia under the auspices of the Indonesian G20 Presidency announced more than $1 billion in funds for Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Chair and Executive Director of the G20 Health and Development Partnership Alan Donnelly and Hatice Kücük Beton look at how the financing for the new FIF is now within reach. Read the article in Politico here.

 

Pandemic preparedness – Politico op-ed

Ever since the outbreak of COVID-19, pandemic preparedness and response, twinned with global health security has been at the forefront of people’s minds. Within the G20 Health and Development Partnership, we have advocated for measures to improve pandemic preparedness to help prevent, detect and respond to new pathogens and outbreaks to the highest levels of G20 policymaking. 

In an op-ed in Politico, the Chair of our subgroup on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Hester Kuipers, Executive Director, IAVI wrote her viewpoint on how the world can best tackle disease threats and improve our security for all. 

Read the Politico op-ed here.

Photo credit IAVI