Reporter: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted debates on finance and health, but talks have resumed at the G20 meeting, which is a forum for the world's 20 largest economies. According to Ambassador Alexandre Ghisleni, coordinator of the Finance and Health Task Force for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, during this week's meeting, the technicians from the member countries were able to give a new direction to the agenda in order to influence global decision-makers, which they believe is already a positive fact for the Brazilian presidency.
Ambassador Alexandre Ghisleni: "We have managed to take this discussion in a new direction, with new proposals, putting the issue of health financing back on a stable, more appropriate footing, in a way that is very much in tune with current issues and draws the attention of decision-makers. It opens the way for us to deepen this discussion, to achieve concrete results that change the health financing scenario in Brasil and the rest of the world", Ghisleni explained during a press conference.
Reporter: Ambassador Alexandre Ghisleni also stated that, although part of the world's population considers the health emergency to be in the past, the group's priority is for countries to anticipate the eventuality of the next pandemic.
Ambassador Alexandre Ghisleni: If we don't prepare for the possibility of the next pandemic, we'll be as surprised as we were by COVID. This preparatory work is at the heart of everything we do.
Reporter: The pursuit of universal health coverage is one of the top priorities in the global health debate. The ambassador stated that it is possible to achieve a situation in which all of the world's citizens have access to health care. He acknowledged that, despite criticisms leveled at the Unified Health System (SUS), Brasil has a significant advantage with a public system that is free of charge and accessible to more than 200 million people. He claims that Brasil has valuable lessons to offer and experience that can be used as a reference in global discussions about how to ensure universal access to health.
This is Enrique Villamil reporting from the G20 newsroom in Brasilia.//
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