The first health working group meeting of the Presidency of G20 in India will be held on January 18-20 in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, the Union health ministry said on Thursday.
The second health working group meeting will be held on April 17-19 in Goa, third meeting from June 4-6 in Hyderabad, Telangana, and the fourth meeting and G20 health ministerial meeting will take place on August 17-19 in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
“The country’s G20 Presidency health priorities will be focused on health emergencies prevention preparedness and response through One Health approach,” said Mansukh Mandaviya, Union health minister.
It has identified three priority areas for the health track that includes focus on measures to prevent future outbreaks.
Using a One Health approach, it helps design, implement and monitor programmes, policies and research on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance to provide evidence and advance inter-sectoral collaboration between public health, animal and environmental health sectors to achieve better public health outcomes.
Apart from health emergencies, prevention preparedness and response, the other priority areas shortlisted by the health ministry are strengthening cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector for availability and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable medical countermeasures—vaccine, therapeutics and diagnostics; and digital health innovations and solutions to aid universal health coverage and improve health care service delivery.
“One Health and anti microbial resistance will have main focus as most future diseases are expected to be of zoonotic in nature. India will aim to play a major role in converging discussions in multiple forums for Global Health Architecture and act as an enabler for reducing fragmentation and duplication,” said a senior health ministry official, requesting anonymity.
India will aim to play a proactive role in representing the Global South in the negotiations across multilateral Global health platforms.
The health minister also explained that strengthening cooperation in the pharmaceutical sector will be done by creating a permanent medical countermeasure platform.
“India is known as the Pharmacy of the World. India will be able to utilise the Agenda to promote distributed manufacturing of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics globally so as to manage future health emergencies. India has exported drugs and vaccines to over 150 countries globally during the pandemic,” said the minister.
The medical countermeasures availability currently is being linked to national security and India can ensure playing a proactive role in ensuring health security for Global South and Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), according to health ministry officials.
The health minister also proposed site events such as digital health workshop on collaborative research to expand access to medical countermeasures, medical value travel and holistic healthcare by providing universal health coverage and improving healthcare service delivery.
The health ministry officials also said that India already has an established leadership position in digital health. Digital Health Resolution in the 71st World Health Assembly was moved by India and endorsed by the World.
India has been the Chair of the Global Digital Health Partnership, the largest inter-governmental body (33 countries as members) for Digital Health.
“The use of Digital Health solutions such as Co-WIN, e-sanjeevani, etc. highlight the advantages of data-driven insights and the use of technology for accessibility, ease of availability, and affordability in health service delivery,” said the official cited above.
India formally assumed the Presidency of G-20 on December 1, 2022, and will hold it till November 30, 2023. (Hindustan Times)
