The 3rd HWG (meeting) will discuss the importance of geographical diversification of research and manufacturing centers for the development of vaccines, medicines, and diagnostic tools, especially for developing countries.
The 3rd Health Working Group (HWG) meeting in Bali on August 22–24, 2022, will strengthen Indonesia’s diplomatic efforts toward realizing equitable vaccine access and diagnostic equipment development.
“The 3rd HWG (meeting) will discuss the importance of geographical diversification of research and manufacturing centers for the development of vaccines, medicines, and diagnostic tools, especially for developing countries," Indonesian spokesperson for the G20, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, said at a virtual press conference on “Road to 3rd HWG,” on Thursday.
The HWG meeting is a part of the G20 Sherpa Track, which is focusing on discussions on developing the global health architecture.
Tarmizi informed that the meeting will be divided into four sessions. The first session will discuss establishing networks between researchers and health manufacturing actors in G20 countries to anticipate public health emergencies and pandemics in the future.
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Meanwhile, efforts to strengthen the networks as well as increase the involvement of the public and private sectors in supporting the networks will be discussed in the second and third sessions, respectively, she said.
The fourth session will discuss the initiatives taken by the G20 for bolstering the research and manufacturing ecosystem to ensure the equitable access and development of vaccines, drugs, and diagnostic tools.
Tarmizi, who is also the secretary of the Directorate General of Public Health at the Health Ministry, said that the meeting is part of a series of Indonesia’s diplomacy efforts in the health sector to strengthen the global health architecture.
The working group is focusing on three priority issues in 2022: building global health system resilience; harmonizing global health protocol standards; and expanding global manufacturing and knowledge centers for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, she added.
In addition, she outlined a number of follow-up actions on the results of previous HWG meetings, including the 1st HWG Meeting in Yogyakarta from March 28–29, which discussed the harmonization of global health protocols.
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As a follow-up to the results of the meeting, the Universal Verifier Vaccine Certificate, which allows digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates of international travelers to be detected by other countries’ systems, is ready to be implemented, the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, during the 2nd HWG in West Nusa Tenggara province on June 6–7, which discussed building global health resilience, the G20 nations agreed to strengthen cooperation on sharing reliable health and virus data through the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), she informed.
She added that Indonesia also held the 1st Joint Finance and Health Ministerial Meeting in Yogyakarta on June 20–21 to realize the establishment of the Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) to bolster global health resilience.
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