Minister Of Health And Minister Of Finance G20 Meet To Discuss Source Of Health Emergency Fund

YOGYAKARTA - The ministers of health and finance of the G20 countries discussed financial sources and utilization of health emergency funds on the agenda of The 1st Health Ministers Meeting (HMM) at the Marriot Hotel, Yogyakarta.

"Last night, this morning, and this afternoon, we will discuss objectives number one and number two, sources of funds and also their users. Let me share the input I received from many friends and organizations that did it," said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin when chaired the meeting reported by Antara, Tuesday, June 21.

The first topic of discussion relates to the establishment of a Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) which is an effort to mobilize financing sources and other needs through a more permanent mechanism.

FIF was initiated to strengthen the role of The Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), which is currently accessing finance for a number of countries in efforts to control the pandemic, but is still ad hoc.

"First, thank you to the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia Sri Mulyani, the G20 finance ministers. We inaugurated the source of funds," he said.

The second objective, said Budi, is that the G20 needs to agree on the use of world health emergency funds because the currently available allocation of funds is only 50 percent of the solution to the global health crisis.

Funds collected through FIF aim to facilitate state access in seeking emergency medical measures such as treatment therapy, vaccine development and diagnostics.

The next goal is to connect international genome sequencing laboratory facilities. "So we can quickly identify pathogens anywhere in the world, sharing information with global scientists to develop," he said.

Regarding diagnostic needs, said Budi, Indonesia needs to harmonize global health protocol standards. Reflecting on the journey of the COVID-19 pandemic, the movement of labor and goods has stopped due to the lockdown policies in a number of countries.

"Pandemics result in an economic crisis and then it can become a social or political crisis," he said.

For this reason, the G20 in the health sector needs to define funds, global health protocols for future pandemics, Budi added.

The final goal, said Budi, is to expand the G20's global manufacturing and research facilities to ensure that low- and middle-income countries are not swayed by the impact of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the agenda of the G20 health and finance ministers meeting which took place at the Palace Ballroom of the Marriot Hotel Yogyakarta was attended by the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani, delegations from the World Bank, Global Fund, GISAID. The majority of G20 finance ministers attended the event online.