Leaders of G7 nations who met in Hiroshima between May 19-21 for their annual summit, outlined global health as one of the priority areas where they will work together. Vow to strengthen global health architecture with WHO at its core
New Delhi: Leaders of G7 nations, following their annual summit in Hiroshima, committed to global health investments to ensure equitable vaccine access, a Pandemic Fund and strengthening of the global health architecture with the World Health Organisation at its centre.
The summit was attended by prime minister Narendra Modi along with his counterparts from G7 nations. India is not a part of the G7 grouping but was invited as a guest nation as it has been in the past too.
The G7 Hiroshima Leaders’ Communique said that the nations are determined to work together alongside others to “invest in global health through vaccine manufacturing capacity worldwide, the Pandemic Fund, the future international agreement for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and efforts to achieve universal health coverage (UHC)”. The summit was attended by leaders of Australia, Brazil, Comoros, Cook Islands, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, and Vietnam.
The Communique also highlighted the need to stay prepared for future pandemics and highlighted that as the rationale behind the need to strengthen the global health architecture. “We renew our strong commitment to developing and strengthening the global health architecture (GHA) with the World Health Organization (WHO) at its core for future public health emergencies to break the cycle of panic and neglect, recognizing that the COVID-19 pandemic has made an unprecedented impact on the international community. To this end, we commit to further enhancing political momentum toward more coordinated and sustained leader-level governance for health emergency prevention…” reads the communique.
The leaders also committed to reverse the first global decline in life expectancy in more than seven decades emphasizing the importance of achieving universal health coverage by 2030 and accelerating progress toward ensuring healthy lives for all and promote well being for all ages. The last is one of the sustainable development goals. The decline has been a result of the COVID19 pandemic and the large numbers of premature deaths that have been recorded in varying degrees in almost all countries.
Among the other priorities for health highlighted in the high level inter governmental meeting were supporting primary healthcare on the road to UHC, developing and restoring essential health services and focussed efforts towards a global understanding of the post COVID19 scenario.
