At G20 Health Ministers virtual conference in Indonesia, India pushes for building of ‘Global Health Architecture’

On Monday, India emphasised the flaws in global health governance and advocated for the improvement of the “Global Health Architecture.”

Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Health Minister, virtually addressed the opening session of the G20 Health Ministers conference in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, emphasising the need for structural changes in health governance in light of the pandemic situation. According to Mandaviya, “the ongoing epidemic has created various problems to global health systems, both developed and developing.” The current epidemic has revealed flaws in global health governance and underlined the urgency of upgrading Global Health Architecture.

It has emphasised the necessity to review health ecosystems, health funding, and their interconnections in light of the current pandemic’s experience.”

According to a press release from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indonesia hosted two Health Working Group Meetings in Yogyakarta and Lombok, where priority issues of ‘Harmonizing Global Health Protocol Standards’ and ‘Building Global Health System Resilience’ were discussed and deliberated upon.

Mandaviya also complimented the Indonesian Presidency for stressing the subject of tuberculosis and One Health at the conference and for organising events in support of it. India has vowed to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, five years ahead of the global SDG objective of 2030.

He was optimistic that the continuous lowered trajectory of COVID-19 was an indication that the pandemic’s conclusion was nigh. He stated that India agrees to reciprocal acceptance of vaccination credentials, as well as its broader applicability for health data interchange.

“It is critical to invest in digital health data systems to enable smooth data interchange and the construction of longitudinal electronic health records inside a country and globally,” he added.

The Health Minister also proposed to G20 members an institutional structure to facilitate the quick exchange of genome sequencing data, as well as a neutral and aggregate data-sharing mechanism across countries.

According to the press release, this could be done across various diseases with fair benefit sharing under the framework of the Nagoya agreement.

The Union Health Minister pushed for an inclusive, flexible, and responsive structure for health emergency management, backed up by a worldwide surveillance apparatus, long-term funding, and fair distribution of medical countermeasures.

He stated that “G20 nations account for 80% of global GDP and share 80% of global cross-border commerce; so, G20 commitment and leadership will be critical to strengthening the global health infrastructure and managing any future health catastrophes.”

Reiterating the importance of WHO as a member-state-driven mechanism in global health reforms, Dr Mandaviya advocated include suggestions addressed at the 75th World Health Assembly on improving global health architecture in G20 negotiations.

This would aid in reducing duplication and building a strong architecture. According to the statement, he also stressed the urgent need to bring openness and accountability to WHO operations in order to make WHO “fit for purpose,” as well as the necessity to strive toward WHO’s financial sustainability.

Finally, he emphasised the importance of global cooperation, urging members to “create global health resilience by working toward mutual recognition of vaccine credentials to aid seamless cross-border travel, as well as the need for expanding research networks, m-RNA manufacturing hubs, and distributed manufacturing of medical countermeasures with a particular focus on the global south.”

Dr Mandaviya emphasised the need of assisting the global south and eliminating injustices, saying that methods to assist low- and lower-middle-income nations must be established. This may be accomplished through increasing research and production capacity, as well as deploying medical countermeasures more equitably, according to the announcement.

“G20 nations must promote VTD research, technology transfers, and regional manufacturing centres, particularly in the Global South. India would also contribute to this effort by expanding its production and research capabilities in order to create a global south mRNA vaccine powerhouse “Dr. Mandaviya stated.