Read her speech:

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.

It is a privilege to join you in South Africa – at a moment when global health stands at a crossroads.

I am speaking to you as a member of The Elders, an organisation founded by Nelson Mandela to promote peace, justice, human rights, and a sustainable planet. I’m also here as Co-Chair of The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, and Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

The architecture which underpins our collective health is under immense strain. We have declining funding for global health, and eroding trust in multilateralism. The strains of climate shocks, complex conflicts, and economic instability have spillover impacts on us all. Such pressures are testing the limits of international cooperation and exposing how deeply health is connected to every aspect of our shared security and prosperity. We risk backsliding from past gains made in combating deadly disease.

The theme of South Africa’s G20 Presidency – “Solidarity, Equality, and Sustainability” – is a hopeful one and offers an opportunity to reset the conversation around our shared interests. This is important, as the decisions of the G20 representing two-thirds of the world’s population have global impact.

Close to six years after COVID-19 was declared to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, progress has been made on improving global rules and financing around pandemic preparedness and response. The G20 played a pivotal role on financing through its support for the establishment of the Pandemic Fund, and has ongoing work on these issues to this day. The adoption of the updated International Health Regulations last year, and the Pandemic Agreement text at the World Health Assembly this year were both significant steps.

But the Pandemic Agreement cannot move to its ratification stage without successful negotiations on its pathogen access and benefit sharing annex. These need to ensure that all countries have access to the countermeasures required to protect public health. Such an equitable system can only be achieved through multilateral negotiations. Strong support from the G20 for multilateralism in this as in other areas is very important at this time.

Pandemic preparedness and response are global public goods. We are all in this together. Yet, as Winnie Byanyima highlighted in this week’s launch of the report of the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS, and Pandemics, breakthrough health technologies are able to be rapidly purchased in the Global North, but are slow to reach the Global South. Millions of people have died as a result.

Let’s be clear: while increased domestic resource mobilisation for health systems and delivery is vital, that does not take away the need for ongoing international support for pandemic preparedness and response. Capacities need to be built for more research and development and innovation in the Global South, linked to regional manufacturing capacities. At the country level, readiness needs to be built and maintained. The Pandemic Fund with the limited funding it has is doing a good job of supporting that.

When our health systems function well, people grow to trust them – and this is perhaps the most valuable currency in any emergency. Investing in universal health coverage and tackling health inequities is critical to building that trust. And those investments must prioritise women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health to build the foundations for healthier societies.

My hope is that this G20 Health Ministerial hosted by South Africa will champion the role of multilateralism in global health, and support successful negotiations in Geneva aimed at making us all safer from pandemic threats – which can emerge at any time. The emergence of new threats is inevitable, but pandemics are not. We can meet threats head on when we act together and prevent another catastrophe like COVID-19. Whether we do is a political choice. Let’s make the right one.

Thank you.