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G7 Health Ministers' Statement on the Importance and Urgency of Improving Global Health Architecture and Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response
February 28, 2024 (virtual)
[PDF]
We, the G7 Health Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the European Union have met today on February 28th, 2024, for the first time under the Italian G7 Presidency, and focused on the imperative to strengthen the global health architecture (GHA) and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR). We appreciate the leadership of the Japanese G7 Presidency in 2023 to promote key global health agendas on PPR.
This meeting comes at a crucial time, since the deadline of May 2024, set for the adoption of the new World Health Organization (WHO) convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (WHO CA+) and targeted amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) approaches. We wish to reiterate our continued commitment to their necessary and successful conclusion at the 77th World Health Assembly, recognising Member States' sovereignty and responsibility for health systems. Completing the negotiations on time is critical to leverage political attention, strengthen future pandemic responses and improve equity.
We see these processes as an endeavour shared equally by each and every country. We believe they are fundamental tools to address the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, by tackling the global gaps in collective PPR to health emergencies and pandemics. If left unaddressed, the world will not be ready for the next pandemic and may have even missed opportunities to prevent it. We further believe strengthening PPR capacities and improving access to medical countermeasures (MCM) are essential in this respect.
We are committed to continue working across sectors and with all relevant partners to achieve, together, through an inclusive process the necessary convergence of the current relevant negotiations. The participation and engagement of public and private stakeholders can provide essential technical expertise to make sure these instruments protect global health and global health security in practice and we look forward to the support of WHO to achieve this convergence. This inclusive process will allow the global community to craft effective provisions that can be implemented in practice, saving millions of lives and rebuilding trust on the ground.
As we work towards strengthening GHA and PPR, we recognise that trust amongst partners is best built with concrete and impactful actions. This is why, the G7, amongst others, has contributed with concrete initiatives to accelerate research and development[1], enhance equitable access to MCMs[2] including facilitating last-mile delivery[3], support to assist at least 100 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in implementing the core capacities required in WHO IHR[4], as well as implement the One Health approach; tackle antimicrobial resistance; and strengthen collaborative surveillance, laboratory capacity and emergency workforce[5].
We recognise that strengthening the capacities and capabilities for pandemic PPR is critical. Therefore, in line with last year's G7 and G20 Health Ministerial Outcome, we are committed to strengthening G7 collaboration to support regional diversification of development and manufacturing of MCMs, including regional vaccine manufacturing initiatives, as well as last-mile delivery, as an essential element to enhance equity. This will build on concrete actions by G7 Members that support the end-to-end manufacturing ecosystem, including by making full use of voluntary technology transfer on mutually agreed terms to support partners.
Sustainable financing is essential to tackle pandemic PPR. In this regard, we welcome and have financially supported the important contribution of the Pandemic Fund as a key component of pandemic PPR financing to strengthen LMICs' capacities at national, regional, and global level to mitigate the risks of future pandemic threats and fill the equity gaps laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recognizing the need to integrate its operations within the broader GHA, we continue to support the Pandemic Fund and the strengthening of its role, while stressing the importance of securing new donors and accountability.
In continuity with the work conducted during the Japanese Presidency on the Triple I Initiative[6] endorsed at the G7 Hiroshima Summit, we remain committed to raising awareness and share best practices on impact investment in global health.
We reaffirm a need for exploring a pandemic response financing framework that better coordinates existing mechanisms and deploys necessary funds quickly and efficiently as endorsed in the G7 Shared Understanding on Enhanced Finance-Health Coordination and PPR Financing[7].
Building on the work which brings together G7 Development Finance Institutions, we intend to further strengthen our collaboration to unlock faster and better coordinated day-zero financing in the event of a pandemic and other health emergencies. We will work towards enhancing global coordination, including between governments, global health initiatives, multilateral development banks and civil society partners, to ensure a quick and efficient deployment of funds in an emergency setting. In this regard, we intend to support the ongoing broader G20 analytical and operational exercise conducted by the G20 Joint Finance and Health Task Force (JFHTF) which is aimed at strengthening PPR and better coordinating the response. We underscore our appreciation for the Brazilian G20 Presidency in this regard.
These concrete actions demonstrate our long-term commitment to strengthen pandemic PPR, as well as our support for the on-going WHO CA+ and IHR negotiations, and our determination to see these processes concluded in May 2024.
With the Rome Declaration, the 2021 Italian G20 Presidency oversaw the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We commend the Italian G7 Presidency's leadership in this key year for GHA and pandemic PPR.
[1] A report to the G7 by the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership, "100 Days Mission to respond to future pandemic threats" 2021 ↩
[2] G7 Hiroshima Vision for Equitable Access to Medical Countermeasures ↩
[3] MCM Delivery Partnership for Equitable Access (MCDP) ↩
[4] G7 Leaders' Communiqué (Elmau 2022) ↩
[5] Pact for Pandemic Readiness ↩
[6] https://tripleiforgh.org/ ↩
[7] https://www.mof.go.jp/english/policy/international_policy/convention/g7/g7_20230513_2.pdf ↩
Source: Official website of Italy's 2024 G7 presidency
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