Global summit calls for new health initiatives
Panelists agree that pandemic is not all about global health, but also about the economy and security
Panelists on the first day of the annual Health20 Summit held on Wednesday called for new initiatives to strengthen and develop global health systems during and after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The two-day virtual summit, hosted by the G20 Health and Development Partnership, invited G20 policymakers, international organizations, economists, and civil society as well as academia to join discussions and make concrete recommendations to G20 health ministers ahead of their summit about the future of global health crisis management and financing.
The participants agreed that the pandemic is not all about global health, but also about the economy and security.
They said that data is important when it comes to measuring the cost of the pandemic. Moreover, they highlighted the importance of building health resilience in the future.
Saudi participant, Dr. Hayat Sindi, senior adviser to the president of the Islamic Development Bank, said her bank has been launching private sector partnerships to finance SDGs.
The IsDB has set up a variety of funds to finance health goals, including funds to end cholera and tackle women’s cancer.
Sindi said the IsDB has experience in promoting sustainable, financial initiatives that help bridge the budget gap in health that some of the IsDB member countries have faced.
“Islamic finance has so much potential in helping the world meet sustainable development goals,” she said. “We have partnered with businesses to finance the World Health Organization to ensure member countries get the aid they need.”
Sindi added that partnerships can be used to mobilize private sector resources and boost development while promoting cooperation among member countries.
Sindi, one of the world’s leading biotechnologists, also said: “If we look beyond COVID-19, we recently cooperated with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The IsDB established a fund to eliminate cholera and secure water supply and hygiene.”
She said the fund aims to mobilize $150 million in grants from donors while the IsDB will provide payable guarantees worth $100 million. But it will not offer its own resources, thus saving funds for other projects.
At the same time, Sindi said, it will be able to help 29 member countries fight cholera and make a positive impact on the lives of five million people.
“It will also contribute to achieving the third sustainable development goal, the fifth goal on gender equality, the sixth goal on water and sanitation, and the 17th on partnerships,” she said.
Sindi said the IsDB has a long history of providing projects in the health sector.
“For instance, the IsDB Group approved a $2.3 billion COVID-19 ‘Strategic Preparedness and Response Program’ as a comprehensive integrated response package,” said Sindi, adding that the bank has special funds including the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development, a $10 billion fund with soft loans and grants.
“In addition to this, the IsDB has successfully mobilized through the ‘Lives and Livelihoods Fund’ worth $559 million for health sector projects.”
Finally, she told the audience about an innovative blended financing initiative managed by the IsDB to save women’s lives from cancer, through a fund with $500 million in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“The blended finance model is using 5Ps instruments (partnerships between public, private, philanthropy, people and civil societies), where all stakeholders can be part of it,” Sindi said. “The initial target of this fund is to save 5 million women who are
suffering from cervical and breast cancer in the least developed countries.”
Sindi added the IsDB is actively pursuing closer collaborations with governments and the private sector, to work on new ways of financing for global health as outlined in the recent G20 HighLevel Panel on the financing paper.
Other prominent speakers also took part on the first day of the event, including European Parliament member, Sandro Gozi, who said it is clear the G20 is becoming a more effective form of multilateralism, but it must become more democratic as a part of it.
Davide La Cecilia, the diplomatic adviser to the Italian minister of health and G20 Sherpa, said health is closely linked to our prosperity and planet, which means that health is closely related to the environment we are in.
For her part, Dame Angela Eagle, a member of the UK House of Commons, suggested that health organizations should follow a preventive policy with the pandemic.
“We have to switch to a preventive stance,” she said. “These types of pandemics are likely to reoccur; we need much more horizon scanning, and we must fit health into economics.”
Bocconi University president and member of the Italian senate, Mario Monti, said that like the financial stability board set up after the financial crisis, there should be a health and finance board as part of the Italian G20 Presidency. He suggested that the World Health Organization be involved as it would lead to a balance of policies between health and finance.
Meanwhile, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s senior minister and coordinating minister for social policies, said that the global public should be part of the mandate of financial institutions.
Speaking about vaccination and how the world will not be safe until all the global population gets the necessary vaccinations, Rudolf Henke, a member of the German Bundestag, said the world is still in front of a huge task for global vaccination.
“To get ahead of the disease, we will not be fully vaccinated until 7 billion people are,” Henke said. “Everyone should have pandemic prepared plans, but you only have them review them on regular occasions.”
President and CEO of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, Joseph Fifer, said that funding alone cannot stop the pandemic but can reduce the impact.
Peter Liese, a German member of the European Parliament, noted that the problem in many European countries is not the lack of the vaccine but vaccine hesitancy.
Anders Nordstrom, secretary of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, said that the cost of the pandemic has been enormous in terms of lives and suffering — not only money. He said it is essential to make investments that do not see immediate results.
Rifat Atun, professor of global health systems at Harvard University, said: “To put a $20 billion pandemic investment in perspective, the capital markets are worth $123.5 trillion. This investment would be a round-up in that perspective, which can save trillions.”
Mariana Mazzucato, chair of the WHO’s Council on the Economics of Health for All, said we should be investing in health for itself, not just for the economy, and then work backward and see if the economy is working for health.