Covid highlighted need for more responsive global health architecture: Mandaviya
Mandaviya cautioned against fragmented and siloed efforts in addressing the challenges faced by the world and underlined the need for collaborative efforts to ensure global health security
The union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday stressed on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on global health infrastructure and emphasised the need for enhanced robustness, inclusivity, and responsiveness while maintaining the central role of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He was speaking at the G7 health ministers’ meeting on Global Health Architecture in Nagasaki, Japan.
“When it comes to managing any health emergency, any country’s national health system is heavily dependent on the global health system,” he said in his address.
The G7 health ministers’ meeting was held on Saturday to discuss the global health challenges and ways to ensure preparedness, prevention and response to future health emergencies.
Health ministers of the G7 countries and “Outreach 4” countries — India, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand — who were invited to the meeting were present.
Mandaviya cautioned against fragmented and siloed efforts in addressing the challenges faced by the world and underlined the need for collaborative efforts to ensure global health security including a specific focus on promoting health equity.
He noted that while multiple global efforts are underway, there is a need to ensure the convergence of these ongoing initiatives.
He added that these have collectively prioritised health emergency preparedness, access to medical countermeasures and digital health to achieve universal health coverage and innovation.
Mandaviya also emphasised the role of digital solutions and the use of technology in ensuring continuity of care amidst multiple challenges posed by the pandemic.
“Bridging digital divide through promotion of digital public goods to support health service delivery is critical to ensure that fruits of technology are made available to all and to aid and augment health response capacities,” he said.
On India’s G20 presidency, Mandaviya informed that priority has been given towards building consensus for converging global efforts to address any health emergencies and ensure the availability of medical countermeasures to all the countries during any health emergency, with a specific focus on affordability and ensuring equitable availability.
He also voiced his concern on the high level of global inequity in access to medical countermeasures by highlighting that the Covid-19 vaccination programme started in December 2020, but even after two years, only 34% of the population in low-and-middle-income countries has access tom the vaccination, compared to 73% in high-income countries as of April 2023.
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