G20 health working group meet in Goa: Focus on comprehensive global health architecture, Minister urges G20 delegates

Union MoS for Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, who delivered the inaugural address, focused on the need for collaborative surveillance, community protection, safe and scalable care, access to medical countermeasures and emergency coordination.

She urged the delegates to use the platform to work towards clearly defined and comprehensive global health architecture. “We need to work collectively towards a happier and healthier world,” she said.

Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said there was a need to invest “substantially more” in health systems, especially prevention that usually gets under-financed. “We need to focus on reducing the drivers of pandemic risk, to prevent them before they emerge,” he said. Bhushan welcomed the focus of first call for proposal by the G20 pandemic fund, which was created last year, on “surveillance, lab systems and strengthening public health workforce”.

Tourism minister Shripad Naik, who was also present at the inaugural session, said India was one of the leading destinations for medical value tourism with over 1.4 million people visiting the country for treatment last year. He added, India was ranked the tenth in the last medical tourism index. “India offers a holistic approach with yoga, Ayurveda, and other traditional practices,” the minster said.

“India’s G20 presidency has collaborated with WHO and circulated adequately in advance three non-papers across all health priorities to supplement our on-going discussions for an effective convergence and consensus among G20 countries and relevant stakeholders,” said Lav Agarwal, coordinator for the health-track of G20 and additional secretary at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, at the inaugural session. The second meeting will also see a discussion on a draft outcome document.

Three technical sessions were held on the first day of the meet. The first session focused on health emergency prevention, preparedness and response, with delegates discussing collaborative surveillance systems supported by advanced networks of laboratories and relevant infrastructure. The discussion also centred on embedding anti-microbial resistance as part of any health emergency governance system and it being complementary to such on-going efforts at various levels of government. The key speakers at the session were former president and distinguished professor of Public Health Foundation of India K Srinath Reddy, assistant director general for anti-microbial resistance at WHO Dr Hanan H Balkhy, and executive director of WHO health emergencies programme Dr Michael Ryan.

The second session focused on creating better collaborations at various levels for access and availability of safe, effective, and quality medical countermeasures. The discussions centred on methods such as public-private partnerships, international collaborations through a network-of-networks platform.

In the third session, discussion on draft outcome document was done exclusively among G20 member states in an hour-long session afterwards. It was emphasised that any consensus must be built through measures that are evidence-based, inclusive, fair, equitable, transparent and need-based.

With plugging the gap of inequitable access and creating global manufacturing network for medical countermeasures – vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics – being priorities for the health working group, India is likely to raise the issue of intellectual property rights during a public health emergency. The discussion is likely to focus on voluntary licensing and technology transfer by pharmaceutical companies, according to officials in the know of the matter.

Amid the pandemic, India along with South Africa had gone to the World Trade Organisation seeking to temporarily get intellectual property rights suspended so that the countries of the global south could also access the vaccines. With its large-volume vaccine manufacturers, India was able to give two shots of the Covid-19 vaccine to over 90% of the population above the age of 12 years and share its vaccines with other countries.

At the meeting, NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr VK Paul shed light on digital healthcare landscape and pharmaceutical sector in India. He urged stakeholders to take advantage of the learning and also exchange the best practices among the G20 nations. He said the momentum and opportunities spurred by Covid-19 initiatives should be capitalised.

For digital health, India is likely to propose a digital toolbox under an intra-government agency like the World Health Organization that can be accessed by other countries as per their need. “Why should countries invest in creating several different digital health platforms; these can be made available in the toolbox and modified by each country as per their need,” the official said. India will open up its tele-consultation platform eSanjeevani to all, just like it offered the vaccine management system CoWIN previously.

India is also celebrating the ‘International Year of Millets’ parallel to the G20 meetings, with ‘SreeAnna’ taking the centre stage during the welcome dinner for the delegates. A “carnival themed” dinner has been planned for the delegates at fort Aguada, according to Bhushan.

As with the previous meeting, the delegates will also be participating in a yoga session on Tuesday morning. “Goa is popular as a tourist’s paradise and confluence of the Indo-Portuguese culture with its spectacular scenic beauty and tranquility of Goa would be a soulful experience for all of you to rejuvenate your mind and body,” said Shripad Naik, adding that the delegates must also experience traditional ayurvedic therapies.

In addition to the two-day G20 discussions, a side-event on digital health has also been planned on April 18 and 19. The event will see “detailed discussions” on how digital health can accelerate universal health coverage through creation of a digital health ecosystem, through innovations in healthcare, through technology driven continuum of care, and through creation of digital public goods,” Bhushan said. An exhibition has also been organised at the main and side-events.

The day is a key milestone, with India having hosted 100 G20 meeting, including four meetings being hosted on Monday — the Meeting of Agricultural Chief Scientists (MACS) in Varanasi, 2nd Health Working Group in Goa, 2nd Digital Economy Working Group in Hyderabad, and Space Economy Leaders’ Precursor Meeting in Shillong.

In-person participation during India’s G20 Presidency is among the largest ever. Over 12,300 delegates from 110 nationalities — G20 members, 9 invitee countries, and international organisations — have attended G20-related meetings so far. India will be hosting foreign delegates for over 200 G20-related meetings in 60 cities across India, the widest geographical spread in any G20 Presidency.