India endeavours to imbibe requirements of Global South in its G20 health priorities: Mandaviya

New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said India endeavours to imbibe the requirements and need of Global South in its G20 health priorities.

"Our Prime Minister has said that our G20 priorities will be shaped in consultation with not just our G20 partners, but also our fellow-travellers in the global South", Mandaviya said while chairing Health Ministers' virtual session of 'Voice of Global South Summit - 2023' titled 'Cooperation to build resilient healthcare systems' here.

Mandaviya further said: "Hence, we will take the voice of the global South to G-20 and other international forums as partners in our development journey. Amalgamation of these efforts will ensure health equity at global level and particularly to Global South".

The session served as a platform to generate ideas from the developing world for holistic healthcare.

"India believes in value-based healthcare and is continuously striving to provide high quality and cost-effective healthcare to everyone. Aligned with its philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and our philosophy of perceiving health as a service, India has offered Co-WIN platform as a digital public good to any interested country. India has offered Co-WIN as a digital public health good to WHO through WHO's C-TAP initiative", said Mandaviya.

Welcoming participants, Mandaviya said: "It is need of the hour to focus on long-term measures to build stronger, more resilient health systems that can prevent, prepare for and respond to future health related challenges, while maintaining essential health services."

Highlighting the significant milestones achieved by India through its journey of managing COVID-19 pandemic, he added that "we have administered more than 2.2 billion vaccines with 90 per cent 2nd dose coverage of 12+ population and 220 million precautionary doses. India's experience has reinforced the fact that capacity building of healthcare workers at various levels of governance, coupled with harnessing digital technology is the way forward."

He also commended India's efforts in providing training to support countries in terms of capacity building of their healthcare professionals. The training included COVID-19 testing, clinical practices, case management, vaccine development & delivery for participants from Asian, South-East Asian, & African countries. India also shared its medical expertise by dispatching Rapid Response Teams to Kuwait and the Maldives.

The Union Health Minister highlighted that since 2015, the world has been observing the International Day of Yoga with huge participation. Around 170 out of 194 WHO Member States have reported the use of traditional medicine & their governments asked WHO to support in creating a body of reliable evidence & data on traditional medicine practices and products.

The session was attended by dignitaries from Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Royal Government of Bhutan, Republic of Cameroon, Grenada, Republic of Guatemala, Republic of Liberia, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Niger, Independent State of Samoa, Kingdom of Eswatini, Republic of Paraguay, and Dominica.