The global health architecture is strengthened by the Indonesia G20 Presidency's contributions, one of these is the formation of a Pandemic Fund which will support financing for the preparedness of low and middle income countries to face a future possible pandemic.

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Indonesia's G20 presidency gives high priority to strengthening the global health architecture, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said when chairing the COVAX Advance Market Commitment Engagement Group (AMC EG) meeting with the Ethiopian Minister of Health and Canadian Minister of International Development, on November 30, 2022.

In her opening remarks, Foreign Minister Retno conveyed Indonesia G20 Presidency's contributions to strengthening the global health architecture, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a written statement on Thursday.

One of these contributions is the formation of a Pandemic Fund which will support financing for the preparedness of low and middle income countries to face a future possible pandemic, Retno said.

In addition, the G20 also agreed on the importance of cooperation in strengthening health production capacity in developing countries, she said, adding that in principle, developing countries must become an integral part of the global health supply chain.

Foreign Minister Retno also emphasized that even though Indonesia's G20 Presidency had ended, Indonesia's commitment to strengthening the global health architecture remained strong.

"COVAX will continue to be an important part of this commitment, especially to bridge the COVID-19 vaccination gap between countries," Foreign Minister Retno added.

The meeting noted a decrease in the death rate from COVID-19 since February 2022 by almost 90 percent. However, it is necessary to anticipate the possibility of a new wave of COVID-19 due to the emergence of two new sub-variants, namely BQ.1 and XBB.

Brekley as the CEO of Gavi emphasized that vaccination, including booster injections, is still the best solution to deal with the evolving COVID-19 virus.

COVAX AMC has distributed vaccines for free to 92 low and middle income countries.

COVAX is a proof to the success of multilateralism. To date, COVAX has distributed 1.84 billion doses worldwide. 89.6 percent of them (1.65 billion doses) were delivered to the 87 AMC countries.

The AMC countries’ average vaccination coverage stood at 52 percent, up from 28 percent in January 2022.

In 2023, COVAX work will focus on nine priority areas, including continuing vaccination support and booster injections, and supporting vaccine research and development.

In the future, COVAX support will begin to be adjusted based on the needs and achievements of vaccination targets, as well as the specific challenges faced by each country, including the humanitarian situation.

The COVAX AMC EG meeting which was held virtually was the fourth meeting in 2022, and the last meeting for Indonesia as one of the COVAX AMC EG Co-Chairs.

Reporting by Indonesia Window