The COVID-19 pandemic has undone decades of progress in global health, leaving developing countries grappling with weakened systems and limited resources. With unsustainable debt undermining investments in essential services, achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3—ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all—has become an urgent global challenge.
At the SDG Lounge’s health session, world leaders and health experts underscored the critical need for long-term political commitments and innovative financing to rebuild health systems, strengthen resilience, and prepare for future crises.
“COVID-19 set us back, and we have not been able to build back health systems and education,” United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed said. “The resources were just not there,” she added, noting that the Ukraine war created a “double whammy,” adversely impacting food systems and energy, which further delayed recovery in many areas. “Today, we are greatly restrained by systems not being able to perform because they’re just not fueled. These tensions between whether I should pay debt or pay for schools or health is a big problem.”
The Deputy Secretary-General then expressed gratitude to those who supported the Pact for the Future, which was “passed by the skin of our teeth” and reaffirmed the SDGs while bringing the issue of debt to the forefront of discussions.
John-Arne Røttingen, CEO of Wellcome, a company at the forefront of infectious disease control breakthroughs, highlighted the need for greater investment in human capital. “When we have a lot of crises going on at the same time, both from the macroeconomic side and local conflicts, these investments are short-sighted. It’s so hard for countries to see the long-term impact of investing in health,” he said.
Atul Gawande, Assistant Administrator for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), pointed out that while development budgets have increased, investments in capacity building have been nearly halved. “Even though there’s more on the table, there’s less investment in the future and much more in the crisis of the moment,” he underscored.
On the topic of advancing global health through technology, Gargee Ghosh, President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the Gates Foundation, remarked, “We are spoiled for choice now, but what we need most is a recommitment to health financing. We’re also seeing aid to Africa, in particular, not keeping pace with where poverty is.”
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