G20 Health & Development Partnership Call to Action

Last week our G20 Health & Development Partnership came together in Tokyo, ahead of the G20 Osaka Summit. We kicked off proceedings by congratulating the Japanese Presidency for placing global health at the centre of the G20 agenda – the latest milestone in the country’s long history of commitment to global health.

The Japanese 2019 G20 Presidency will focus on three areas in health: universal health coverage (UHC), the response to an aging society, and management of health emergencies including antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Diagnostics are intrinsic to all three – and while FIND is already highlighting how diagnostics are an essential enabler of UHC, and a critical element of the fight against AMR, our aging population brings challenges that have big implications for non-communicable disease management too, and that’s an area we are starting to look into.

It’s exciting that Japan is leaning on its well-known expertise in technology to address healthcare priorities – in the wake of the recently published WHO Global Strategy on Digital Health, and the Global Action Plan (GAP) Accelerator for Data and Digital Health. Our digital diagnostics portfolio is expanding and includes several Japanese innovations, including an artificial intelligence-powered digital chest X-ray reader for TB screening and triage.

Innovative financing solutions are bright on the G20 radar too. G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors are calling for a stronger collaboration between Finance and Health authorities, with the appropriate contribution of the private sector and NGOs that are crucial for strengthening health financing. For the first time, G20 Finance and Health Ministers came together at a joint ministerial meeting.

Our G20 Health & Development Partnership summit culminated in a call to action, with four recommendations to ensure we are on track to meet SGD3 and achieve UHC by 2030. The recommendations address health innovation and financing, emerging threats and digital health. I invite you to read the full call to action here.

Catharina