Countdown To 2030 – Turning G20 Health Declarations Into SDG3 Actions and Results
The costs of mitigating COVID-19 by 2025 are estimated at USD 22 trillion, as noted by the recent G20 High-Level Panel for Financing the Common Goods for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, with USD12 trillion having already been spent by G20 countries. In light of this massive burden on our economies, the G20, the WHO and many other global initiatives have been created during the last 18 months to tackle this pandemic, revive societies and economies and prevent us from a future pandemic shock.
Although many significant initiatives have been created such as the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response and the ACT-Accelerator, it is crucial to not create new silos, but merge the various initiatives towards a common goal. A strengthened WHO allowing for more cross-sectoral collaboration from the private and public sector, supported by clear commitments by the G20 nations, prove to be a way forward to turn global initiatives and G20 declarations into concrete actions to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
With 90% of G20 economies having been hit hardest by this pandemic, it is important not to view health emergencies, such as this pandemic, as disaster relief; but rather to build back more sustainable health systems by learning from similar initiatives through the climate change and green financing agenda.
This two-day summit aims to compare existing G20 initiatives to assess how we can leverage the many initiatives and turn them into concrete actions.
During the two-day H20 summit, high-level speakers from across the G20 and the public and private sector will discuss 1) what lessons have we learned from this pandemic and how can we turn these into concrete actions 2) how we can build sustainable mechanisms to prevent the emergency of future health emergencies such as NCDs, AMR and neglected tropical diseases. Panellists will also discuss 3) how to bridge the disconnect between parliamentarians and governments that came to light during this pandemic 4) and how a common set of metrics to measure the return of health investments (ROI) into national economies can help to incentivize governments to promote more strategic health investments to strengthen health systems by 2030 and beyond.
This pandemic has cemented the direct link between health and the economy, demonstrating that investing in health far outweighs the costs. There is thus an imperative to change the mindset that considers health funding solely as a cost, rather than one of the most effective investments to combat the ever-changing biology of the world we live in.
This event will also launch its first G20 Parliamentary Council formed by Parliamentarians with a background in Finance, Health, Development and Foreign Affairs to discuss how Parliaments can implement annual reviews for pandemic preparedness in the same fashion as its being done for defense budget spending. The goal of the Parliamentarians will be to draft recommendations towards the G20 Health Ministers Meeting on how such an annual budgetary overview can be implemented.
The H20 Summit in support of the official G20 Presidency agenda aims to submit a set of concrete recommendations to G20 Leaders, Health and Finance Ministers ahead of their ministerial meetings.
