New Delhi: Former union minister and India’s representative to the G7 and G20 summits, Suresh Prabhu, called for the World Health Organization (WHO) to be made “more effective” and added that the world needed to address the issue of global health governance to be able to tackle pandemics such as Covid-19.
Speaking at the sixth edition of the Raisina Dialogue, organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and Observer Research Foundation Tuesday, Prabhu said, “The WHO cannot just be the body that keeps releasing information and database [on Covid-19]… That’s not the job of WHO alone.”
In comparison to WHO, he said, G20 and G7 are only platforms “not institutions”, which can address these issues globally.
Prabhu was speaking at a discussion on the role of digital technology and multilateral organisations and platforms in creating robust health systems. He also highlighted the need for investments in research and development, human behavioural change and incentivising private-public partnership to improve public health.
The need to make the digital space “a global public good” will be on the agenda for India when it hosts the G-20 summit in 2023, he said. Indonesia is the current chair.
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Local vs global
Describing the Covid-19 pandemic as a local problem that snowballed, Prabhu raised the issue of not allowing a local problem to become a global issue. Not finding a solution to this will invite more pandemics in the future, he said.
“What is the surveillance mechanism that we have put in place to ensure a local problem in a different part of the world remains localised and … should not allow the whole world to suffer.”
Into its second wave of Covid-19, India overtook Brazil to become the second-worst hit country and recorded 1,61,736 fresh cases Monday.
“What is the global governance on health?” Prabhu asked. “If we don’t address this problem now, we’ll have more problems in the future.”
Economist Shamika Ravi who was also on the panel said, “I think technology should be used to minimise potential for future outbreaks.” She praised India’s efforts to improve access to health care using Aadhaar, the universalised identity system.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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