G20 Health Minister Meet

G20 Health Minister Meet

Subject: International Relations

Section: International Groupings

 Context: The health ministers’ meeting under G20 ended in Gandhinagar with the adoption of the Indian Health Ministry spear-headed outcome document.

More about the news:

• India’s G20 presidency has managed to build consensus on setting up R&D and manufacturing networks for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, and setting up a platform for making open-source, inter-operable digital solutions readily available.
• The Global Initiative Digital Health, a platform for sharing digital goods and knowledge was also launched at the meeting. It will have four pillars
  • Investment tracker,
  • Ask tracker to track technologies the countries need,
  • A library of available digital tools, 
  • A platform for knowledge-sharing to implement these technologies at scale
• The priority on health emergency prevention preparedness and response ended with a commitment to negotiate a legally binding WHO convention, agreement, or other international instrument by May 2024.
• The G20 countries reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen dialogue through the G20 Joint Finance-Health Task Force. 
• They welcomed the successful conclusion of the First Call for Proposals of the Pandemic Fund, focusing on disease surveillance, lab capacity, and public health workforce. This fund, with $2 billion from the previous G20 presidency, aims to enhance health emergency preparedness in low to middle-income countries. 

What is G20 Summit:

• G-20 was a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 individual countries and the European Union.
• It was established in 1999 and was elevated to a forum of Heads of Government in 2008 to effectively respond to the global financial crisis of 2008.
• G-20 is a forum, not a legislative body and its agreements and decisions have no legal impact, but they do influence countries’ policies and global cooperation..
• The G20 membership accounts for
• Two-thirds of the world’s population, 
• 85% of global gross domestic product,
• 80% of global investment 
• 75% of global trade.
• Contribute 79% of the world carbon emissions
• G20 does not have any permanent secretariat or headquarters.
• The G20 Summit is formally known as the “Summit on Financial Markets and the World Economy”.

How G20 works:

• Since the G20 has no permanent secretariat. Theagenda and work are coordinated by representatives of the G20 countries, known as ‘Sherpas’.
• The presidency of the G20 rotates every year among members, and the country holding the presidency, together with the previous and next presidency-holder, forms the ‘Troika’.
• Troika ensures continuity of the G20 agenda.
• During India’s presidency, India, Indonesia and Brazil will form the troika.

More about India Presidency:

• India assumes the presidency of G20 from 1st of December.
• The G20 Presidency also marks the beginning of “Amritkaal”, the 25-year period beginning from the 75th anniversary of its independence on 15 August 2022.
• Guest countries during India’s presidency will include Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the UAE