INTRODUCTION
Building on the progress of previous G20 presidencies, particularly those of Indonesia (2022), India (2023), and Brazil (2024), and leveraging the potential of the G20, South Africa’s G20 Presidency will focus on the theme Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability. This will complement the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the development agenda of Africa as the world’s fastest-growing continent, and the Lusaka Agenda. It will also focus on rebuilding momentum to reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Global Health was first included in the G20 agenda in 2017, during Germany’s Presidency, to underscore the political support needed for health initiatives and the economic dimensions of health issues. The 2017 G20 Health Ministers’ Declaration reiterated the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) central role in global health.
South Africa’s G20 health agenda will highlight the need for equitable multilateral solutions to address the health challenges of the 21st century. At the centre of this approach will be universal health coverage (UHC), with a focus on primary health care (PHC) as an inclusive, equitable, cost-effective, and efficient approach to enhancing physical and mental health and to responding to health emergencies. It is estimated that over 4.5 billion people lack access to essential health services, and two billion people face catastrophic or impoverishing health spending due to out-of-pocket health spending. Prioritising resilient and equitable health systems is key to overcoming a pattern of stagnation, accelerating progress towards the health-related 2030 SDGs, and laying the foundation for a fairer, equitable, and safer world.
Under the theme Accelerate Health Equity, Solidarity, and Universal Access, South Africa’s G20 Health Working Group will focus on the following priorities:
- Accelerating UHC through a PHC approach
- Strengthening human resources for health
- Stemming the tide of NCDs
- Pandemic Prevention Preparedness and Response (PPPR)
- Science and innovation for health and economic growth.
PRIORITIES
ACCELERATING UHC THROUGH A PHC APPROACH
Expected outcomes and key deliverables
- Convene a high-level dialogue in March 2025 on developing and operationalising strong PHC-orientated models of care, financial protection, and efficiency gains to accelerate progress towards UHC.
- Consensus and high-level political commitment across G20 countries to accelerate PHC-orientated models of care and financial protection for UHC.
- Dashboard tracking global progress on the reorientation towards a PHC approach, financial protection, and financing flows for UHC through WHO, regional economic communities and partners, embedding evidence-based benchmarks informed by the Lusaka Agenda.
STRENGTHENING THE HEALTH AND CARE WORKFORCE
Expected outcomes and key deliverables
- The South African G20 Presidency aims to elevate these issues and build consensus among G20 countries, partners, and international financial institutions on strategies to stimulate action and investment into health and care workforce education, decent job creation, and workforce retention. The focus will be to create sustainable workforce solutions that advance the PHC approach for UHC, health emergency preparedness, and response and science-based innovation.
- Hosting a health and labour high-level dialogue on health and care workforce at the third HWG meeting in May 2025.
- Building on the recommendations of the United Nations High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, the dialogue will bring together ministers of health and labour to reach consensus on accelerated actions and investments in education, job creation in health, and retention of the workforce to deliver on the ambitions of UHC, health security and the SDGs.
- The dialogue will also explore domestic and international financing options to deal decisively with the workforce crisis. Such options could facilitate finding sustainable, innovative, and equitable solutions to the health and care workforce shortages and maldistribution, focusing on those that have the most impact in addressing fundamental under-investment in education and jobs, and that leverage as relevant the power of digital health technologies.
- G20 Member States to consider aligning their efforts towards the African Health Workforce Investment Charter.
STEMMING THE TIDE OF NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES (NCDs)
Expected outcomes and key deliverables
- Establish a strong public and private collaboration network with regional and international organisations led by WHO to address key challenges, common barriers, and improve equitable access to NCD medicines and health products for diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases.
- Hosted high-level webinar to emphasise the need for a roadmap on access to NCD interventions to be endorsed at a satellite meeting in 2025 after the G20.
- Strategic document to improve NCD access to medicines and other health products.
- Use policy interventions to limit the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, which is a critical public health priority, noting the growing burden of obesity.
- Hosting a high-level seminar to discuss Member States experiences on limiting marketing of unhealthy foods to children.
By encouraging member states to share their experiences and foster collective action, South Africa seeks to drive progress on both fronts. Both priorities are essential for achieving meaningful health outcomes, and South Africa is committed to advancing these goals through international collaboration and policy reform.
- Enhanced partnerships among the G20 membership to combat cervical cancer, as a concrete illustration of how cooperation can advance women’s health, close a key gap in the HIV response, and realise a shared goal to bring about the first-ever elimination of a cancer.
PANDEMIC PREVENTION PREPAREDNESS AND RESPONSE
Expected outcomes and key deliverables
- To remain updated and contribute to progress towards global PPPR, South Africa will convene a global meeting to take stock of progress towards PPPR planning. This meeting will build on the G20 meeting convened by Brazil to advance the establishment of an Alliance for Regional Production and Innovation.
SCIENCE AND INNOVATION FOR HEALTH AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
Expected outcomes and key deliverables
- Working with all interested countries on the “Commission/Initiative on Science and Innovation for Health and Economic Growth” in 2024/2025. This initiative will review, strengthen, and leverage member states’ science, research, and innovation ecosystems to improve integrated approaches to health and contribute to economic opportunity and growth.
- Evidence map of the current approach and funding of national and regional scientific ecosystems with interested countries in G20 and beyond.
- Lessons learnt across countries of what has been tried, what works, and what does not when using limited domestic resources to support science and to structure science advice into government.
- Use this work to establish a strategic and practical framework for principles, options, and possible best practices for how countries may structure, fund, and sustain their domestic science ecosystems for health and economic growth.
- South Africa to host an in-person high-level seminar on Science and Innovation for Health and Economic Growth.
