Switzerland to attend G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' Meeting in Rome
Bern, 28.10.2021 - Federal Councillors Ueli Maurer and Alain Berset will take part in the G20 Joint Finance and Health Ministers' Meeting in Rome on 29 October 2021. Federal Councillor Berset will attend virtually via videoconference. The main topic is the creation of a G20 task force to coordinate and finance pandemic preparedness and response. Its secretariat is to be hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.
The Italian G20 presidency has declared the financing of pandemic prevention, preparedness and response as one of its priorities. In July 2021, the G20 finance ministers tasked an informal group with presenting concrete implementation proposals to the finance and health ministers at their joint meeting on 29 October 2021. This work is based on relevant reports from independent international experts on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic to date, and initial recommendations on how to better prepare for future pandemics.
The cornerstone of the proposals is a G20 task force, which is intended to look into specific aspects in more depth under the auspices of next year's Indonesian G20 presidency. The secretariat of the new task force is to be hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva.
Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer, in Rome, and Federal Councillor Alain Berset, attending virtually from Bern, will present Switzerland's view that the key issue of sustainable financing for pandemic preparedness and response is very important and should be addressed immediately, while upholding the mandates of the existing international organisations. In this regard, Switzerland is engaging in ongoing WHO processes with a view to strengthening them and ensuring that they are sustainably financed.
Address for enquiries
FDF Communications
Tel. +41 58 462 60 33, info@gs-efd.admin.ch
Peter Lauener, Head of Communications FDHA
Tel. +41 58 462 82 31, peter.lauener@gs-edi.admin.ch
Publisher
Federal Department of Finance
https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html
Federal Department of Home Affairs
http://www.edi.admin.ch
