UAE calls for more health finance

Mohamed Bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, and Dr Maha Barakat, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Health, led the UAE’s delegation in the G20 Joint Health-Finance Ministers Meeting (JHFMM). The meeting discussed the progress made by the Joint Finance and Health Task Force (JFHTF) this year.

The JFHTF brings together finance and health authorities from G20 members and invited countries as well as representatives of relevant regional and international organizations, with the aim of enhancing dialogue and global cooperation on issues related to pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. The UAE participated in the three meetings that the Task Force held this year under the G20 Finance Track, with the aim of boosting dialogue and global collaboration.

During the meeting, the UAE delegation commended the progress made by JFHTF this year, and reiterated the need for the task force to build on its achievements to enable effective collaboration between health and finance. The UAE delegation also highlighted the importance of the pandemic risk and financing gaps analysis that the JFHTF developed, while reiterating the need capture country specific circumstances in further upcoming efforts.

During the meeting, members emphasized the importance of finance-health coordination in responding to health emergencies, and discussed potential avenues for strengthening these mechanisms. Members also reviewed the progress on the development of a framework for health, social, and economic vulnerabilities, and risks from pandemics. Lastly, members shared their views on the mapping exercise of existing pandemic response financing mechanisms and gaps that can inform the development of an effective, coordinated, and optimized pandemic response financing approach.

At the end of the meeting, participating ministers reiterated their commitment to the task force’s priorities and agreed to continue to lead health and finance coordination efforts on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.