The G20 High-Level Independent Panel (HLIP) has called for expanding investment into global public goods to get over the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.
“Member governments should invest more into disease surveillance, research networks, and expanding supplies to countries’ health and medical systems,” it said in a recent report. “To this end, G20 needs to create a fund on the global governance level and support innovation.”
The G20 HLIP was established on Jan. 26 to discuss funding for a joint global pandemic response. It comprises experts in finance and governance, supported by private organizations, such as Bruegel, the Center for Global Development, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and the Wellcome Trust, according to the report published in the Global Smart Healthcare Industry Trend, a journal published by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI).
It called for raising a public fund of at least $75 billion over the next five years, double the current spending level, to narrow gaps among countries in preparing and preventing pandemics. It cited preparedness gaps in four areas -- infectious disease surveillance, the resilience of national health systems, global capacity to supply and deliver vaccines and other medical countermeasures, and global governance.
The panels said addressing such gaps could substantively reduce future pandemic risks. It added that the proposed fund would add three points to the financing of global health security.
HLIP explained that an enhanced multilateral component of funding for the World Health Organization would provide a stronger and more predictable layer of financing, allow effective and agile deployment of funds for a global society, and promote investments from governments and private sectors into the broader global health system.
The panels noted that money alone would not lead to a safer environment unless accompanied by stronger governance, and the WHO should integrate other key players in global health security.
“This new governance mechanism will bring together the worlds of health and finance, and the board should include health and finance ministers from G20 members and heads of major regional organizations, with leadership and membership that ensures credibility and inclusivity,” the panel said.
While attending the recent meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, Korean Minister of Economy and Finance Hong Nam-ki said, “As infection control is directly linked to the economy, the HLIP review to improve the global health system is timely, and the connection is necessary to respond to increase in pandemic risks facing the global economy, the realization of climate risks, and the acceleration of the digital economy.”
Hong also emphasized the need for linking the policies of developed and developing countries, saying, “Infectious diseases and climate problems have no borders, and no one can be safe unless others are. Therefore, we urge developed countries to play an active role in responding to infectious diseases and climate problems in developing countries.”