Ministers of health of the Group of Twenty (G20) member countries will meet for the first time in Berlin, Germany, on 19 and 20 May to discuss a coordinated global response to global health challenges. The G20 member countries are focusing on global health for the first time, reaffirming their commitment to translating the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development into practice in the health and development sectors.
Health is key to the three main pillars of Germany’s G20 presidency—building resilience, improving sustainability and assuming responsibility.
Global health concerns, such as infectious disease outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance, will be the main topics of discussion, given their severe impact on the lives and well-being of millions of people as well as on the global economy. The G20 health ministers will focus on the need for strengthening health systems to ensure healthy populations, underpin strong economies and safeguard against disease outbreaks with pandemics.
Collective action and sustained leadership will be needed to address critical global health issues, including ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. The G20’s role will be pivotal to developing concerted action to address HIV in G20 countries—where 15.4 million people are living with HIV and nearly a million became newly infected with HIV in 2015—as well as championing global solidarity to accelerate progress globally. Currently, G20 countries provide 84% of the total official development assistance for AIDS in low- and middle-income countries.
Investing in the AIDS response will have a multiplier effect on G20 priorities as it will spur progress on tuberculosis, strengthen health systems, create jobs and drive results across the Sustainable Development Goals.
