G 20 SUMMIT ON HEALTH CARE

The 2023 G20 New Delhi summit was the eighteenth meeting of the G20 (Group of Twenty). It was held at Bharat Mandapam International Exhibition Centre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on 9th and 10th September 2023. It was the first G20 summit held in India.

The Group of Twenty (G20), a collection of twenty of the world's largest economies formed in 1999, was conceived as a bloc that would bring together the most important industrialized and developing economies to discuss international economic and financial stability.

G20 India has put forth six agenda priorities for the G20 dialogue in 2023:

· Green Development, Climate Finance & Life

· Accelerated, Inclusive & Resilient Growth

· Accelerating progress on SDGs

·Technological Transformation & Digital Public Infrastructure

· Multilateral Institutions for the 21st Century

· Women-led development

G20 leaders have resolved to build more resilient, equitable, sustainable, and inclusive health systems to achieve universal health coverage, enhance pandemic preparedness, and strengthen existing infectious disease surveillance systems. In their joint declaration, the leaders stressed on strengthening primary healthcare, health workforce, and essential health services to better-than-pre-pandemic levels, ideally within the next two to three years.

Besides focusing on epidemics such as tuberculosis and AIDS, the grouping of emerging and developed economies recognized the importance of research on long COVID-19.

The G20 leaders committed to improving access to medical countermeasures and facilitating more supplies and production capacities in developing countries to prepare better for future health emergencies.

It also stressed implementing and prioritizing tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) following the One Health approach, including research and development, infection prevention and control, as well as antimicrobial stewardship efforts within respective national action plans through AMR and antimicrobial consumption surveillance.

The Declaration called for facilitating equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures, especially in low- and middle-income countries and least-developed countries.

They resolved to strengthen global health and implement the One Health Approach by building more resilient, equitable, sustainable, and inclusive health systems to achieve universal health coverage, enhance pandemic preparedness, and strengthen existing infectious disease surveillance systems.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

Considering that countries are facing high and rapidly increasing threats to health and global economic stability related to AMR, G20 Leaders in Hangzhou committed to exploring ways to prevent and mitigate AMR by addressing challenges in equitable and affordable access to antimicrobial medicines, promoting the prudent use of antibiotics and by unlocking research and development into new and existing antimicrobials.

The OECD was requested by the German Presidency to coordinate and prepare, together with WHO, FAO, and OIE, a report Tracking Antimicrobial Resistance, Ensuring Sustainable R&D, on potential strategies to tackle AMR and ensure sustainable research and development (R&D) for new antibiotics.
Strengthening Global Health and Implementing One Health Approach

G 20 remains committed to strengthening the global health architecture, with the World Health Organization (WHO) at its core, and building more resilient, equitable, sustainable, and inclusive health systems to achieve Universal Health Coverage, 9 Zero Draft implement One Health approach, enhance pandemic preparedness and strengthen existing infectious diseases surveillance systems. To achieve this, we will:

i. Focus on strengthening primary health care and health workforce and improving essential health services and health systems to better than pre-pandemic levels, ideally within the next 2-3 years, as well as continued progress towards polio eradication and ending ongoing epidemics including AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis, and water-borne and other communicable diseases, also recognizing the importance of research on long COVID.

ii. Promote the One Health-based approach driven by the Quadripartite’s One Health Joint Plan of Action (2022-2026).

iii. Enhance the resilience of health systems and support the development of climate-resilient and low-carbon health systems in collaboration with MDBs, and support the work of the WHO-led Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH).

iv. Implement and prioritize tackling Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) following the One Health approach, including through research and development, infection prevention and control, as well as antimicrobial stewardship efforts within respective national action plans through AMR and antimicrobial consumption surveillance.

v. Facilitate equitable access to safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures, especially in low- and Middle-income Countries (LMICs), LDCs, and SIDS.

vi. Look forward to a successful outcome of the ongoing negotiations at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) for an ambitious, legally binding WHO convention, agreement or other international instruments on pandemic PPR (WHO CA+) by May 2024, as well as amendments to better implement the International Health Regulations (2005).

vii. Recognize the potential role of evidence-based Traditional and Complementary Medicine in health, and take note of international efforts in this direction, including WHO’s global and collaborating centers, and clinical trial registries.

viii. Support the WHO-led inclusive consultative process for the development of an interim medical countermeasures coordination mechanism, with effective participation of LMICs and other developing countries, considering a network of networks approach, leveraging local and regional R&D and manufacturing capacities, and strengthening last-mile delivery. This may be adapted in alignment with the WHO CA+.

ix. Promote and improve access to mental health services and psychosocial support in an inclusive manner.

x. While highlighting the public health dimension of the world drug problem, call for strong international counter-narcotics cooperation, free of unnecessary restrictions, including information sharing and capacity building to disrupt production and 10 Zero Draft proliferation of illicit drugs, including synthetic drugs, and precursor chemicals at their origin, in transit and at destination points.

Reference

G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration New Delhi, India, 9-10 September 2023