The annual World Bank Group meetings traditionally unite central bankers, finance ministers, private sector leaders, and civil society, bearing the unparalleled opportunity to address the precarious state of health financing among other complexities. The COVID-19 pandemic, which inflicted $13.8 trillion in economic losses, laid bare the fragility of health systems and underscored the inseparable link between health and economic stability.
As fiscal constraints tighten and overseas development assistance diminishes, multilateral development bank leaders, including those of Group of Seven, Group of 20, BRICS, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries, must prioritize sustainable health financing at these meetings by placing a new health investment framework — a health taxonomy — at the heart of their discussions at the World Bank annual meetings next week.
A health investment framework, that we call the health taxonomy, was launched by the G20 and G7 Health and Development Partnership with partners from the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, Harvard University, and the WifOR Institute at the Health20 Summit in June. It provides the blueprint for a strategic imperative to align stakeholders, attract private capital, and foster country self-reliance, ensuring equitable and resilient health systems.