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FIND’s intervention on increasing investments in health and care worker education, employment and skills at Plenary Session 2 of the 3rd G20 Health Working Group meeting

G20

Delivered by Dr Ifedayo Adetifa
8 May 2025

FIND commends South Africa’s G20 Presidency’s commitment to strengthening the health workforce, a cornerstone for achieving UHC and ensuring health equity. Central to this endeavor is the strengthening of diagnostic capacities, which empower health workers to deliver timely and accurate care.

Diagnostics are foundational to effective healthcare delivery. Empowering health workers with tools and training to use diagnostics effectively is critical to building resilient health systems.

At FIND, we work towards closing diagnostic gaps by building local capacity and empowering health workers. Since inception, we have trained almost 62,700 health workers to build and strengthen diagnostic capacity across healthcare systems. Our Training Academy has enhanced diagnostic and laboratory skills in health workers from over 70 countries through online and in-person courses on topics such as diagnostic network optimization, next-generation sequencing, and antimicrobial resistance assessments. We also partner with governments across Asia, Africa, and Latin America to co-develop training curricula, support community-based testing, and deploy digital tools to strengthen diagnostic services across all levels of care.

The WHA resolution on strengthening diagnostic capacity urges investment in a skilled health workforce to manage and adapt to new diagnostic technologies. In support of this, we call on the G20 to do the following:

  1. Allocate domestic resources to scale up training of health workers on use of diagnostics including for pandemic preparedness,
  2. Accelerate adoption of digital and AI-enabled diagnostic tools to improve access and accuracy of diagnosis, particularly in underserved areas, and
  3. Establish robust policies for long-term investments in training, retention and equitable distribution of health workforce, integrating diagnostics into health, education, and economic development plans for a system wide impact.

By prioritizing diagnostics in health workforce development, the G20 can drive meaningful progress forward towards more equitable, effective, and resilient health systems.

Thank you.