THIRUVANANTHPURAM: The World Health Organisation (WHO) fully endorses India’s global health agenda in G20. This was stated by Stephanie Seydoux, WHO envoy for multilateral affairs at the first meeting of the G20 Health Working Group here on January 18-20.
“WHO is a very strong supporter of the Global Health Agenda which is set by the India presidency,” Seydoux said.
AyoadeAlakija, Special Envoy, ACT-Accelerator, WHO, said, “India’s G20 presidency is an exciting moment in history, because India is going to decide the global health architecture for the next many decades to come.
New global order
Shesaid she was confident that India during its presidency would bring closer collaboration between the Global South. It will be instrumental in ushering in a new global order.
Alakija said she was impressed with the transformation that India had gone through in the last decade in digital landscape, be it infrastructure, finance or health. She said she believed that G20 meetings were much more than just conversations, there was lot of knowledge-sharing that was taking place.
Alakija opined that the G20 Health Working Group meeting will serve as a forum for exchange of ideas, solutions and experiences speciallyamongst the countries of Global South.
“How can we share our experiences and innovate together and how can we co-create the world we want… the world that is going to be truly the world that delivers for us. the people,” Alakija said.
Calling for India’s leadership of Global South, she said, “It is time for decisions of the global south to be made in the global south, the beaches of Goa or Pune, in Delhi, and not in the snowy slopes of Davos. We need to push for that,” Alakija said.
God’s own country
Alakija praised the meeting location, Kerala. She said that she was truely impressed by the “God’s own country,” and experiencing its amazing culture and welcoming people was incredible. Dr. Alain Labrique, Director of Digital Health & Innovation at the WHO, said that India had changed a lot in last five years. Similarly, a lot of nations in Global South have taken a transformative journey.
“So, we have to think about where we are today but also build solutions for tomorrow and keep in mind that everyone should benefit from this technology revolution,” he added.
He pitched for India to take leadership in developing regulatory framework and laws for a new era where the world is being transformed by advent of digitisation. This new world demands a new approach to security and privacy to build trust among users and beneficiaries. “I think it is the foundation of a location where I would like to see India shining as a light for other countries to learn from”, he said.
