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To leave no one behind, G20 must commit to pandemic fund
The G20 leaders in their Rome Declaration 2021 noted that financing for pandemic PPR has to become more adequate, more sustainable and better coordinated.
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Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin opening the the G20's Health Working Group meeting in Yogyakarta, on March 28. (Health Ministry/Health Ministry)
This aging world has seen the worst times in its history, be it wars, disasters or strikes of highly infectious diseases. And every time, countries and their people have remarkably managed to survive.
History shows that the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic completely changed the way health care was delivered. The first flu vaccine was discovered in the 1940s and has prevented millions of deaths from occurring. An international health agency was formed to ensure global action if another health crisis struck.
The public health system was revolutionized. The first centralized public healthcare system, which was funded through a state-run insurance scheme and employer-based insurance arrangement, was introduced, after learning from failure to cope with H1N1 type A virus.
After a series of outbreaks of new emerging diseases throughout the 20th century, in 1997, the World Health Organization, Medicine Sans Frontier, International Federation of Red Cross, and United Nations Children Fund took the initiative to establish the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision. The group is mandated to manage and coordinate the provision of emergency vaccine supplies and antibiotics to countries during major outbreaks.
In 2011, the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness (PIP) Framework brought industry, other stakeholders, and WHO and its members states to increase access for developing countries to vaccines and other pandemic-related supplies. The 2005-2010 Indonesia’s National Pandemic Preparedness and Response Plan adopted a business continuity plan and established an emergency reserve fund to ensure essential services would still run if the then-H5N1 avian flu virus transformed into a virus easily transmissible among humans.
Getting together and putting all resources together in one pot is not a new idea. Our ancestors recognized the concept of lumbung padi (granary system), an umbrella system to prepare for the rainy season when their crops failed to harvest as expected.
It is our turn, this time -- two years after the pandemic button hit -- for the global health leaders to sit side-by-side again with experts, to discuss better funding initiatives that will help countries and communities to do better when responding to future health threats.
