COVID-19 – Indonesia promote world’s health resilience system at summit

Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Responding to the COVID-19 crisis which shows the fragility of global health resilience, both in developing and developed countries, Indonesia has promoted to strengthen the architecture of the global health resilience system, as has been done by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the financial sector.

It was conveyed by Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the Bogor presidential palace in West Java province on Wednesday (Sep. 22), at the Global COVID-19 Summit which was held virtually.

“We have to develop a new mechanism in raising the world health resources, including for financing the world’s health needs, which among others are used to purchase vaccines, medicines, and medical equipment,” the president said.

According to him, global health protocol standards should be immediately compiled so that all countries worldwide could apply the same procedures, including travel across national borders.

In addition, President Joko Widodo also called for developing countries to be empowered to make them a part of the global solution.

“Local manufacturing capacity should be built so that the need for vaccines, medicines, and medical devices could be available quickly and evenly throughout the world. Indonesia is committed and able to become part of the global supply chain,” he added.

Regarding vaccines, the head of state reiterated that the vaccine gap should be addressed immediately. Through the COVAX Facility, dose-sharing cooperation and equitable access to vaccines should be improved.

The president also called for the politicization and nationalism of vaccines to end.

According to him, solidarity and cooperation are the keys to get the world out of the pandemic as soon as possible and recover together.

“As President of the G20 next year, Indonesia will contribute to the world’s efforts to strengthen the architecture of global health resilience for the sake of our children and grandchildren in the future,” he said.

The world high-level meeting on handling the COVID-19 pandemic was initiated by the United States’ President Joe Biden.

This is the second meeting initiated by Biden after the Meeting of the Major Economic Forum (MEF) on September 17, 2021.

Reporting by Indonesia Window