July 04, 2018

C20 health meeting in Argentina attended by Roberta Anido Pena

The Civil 20 or C20 is one of the seven Engagement Groups of the G20 (Group of Twenty), characterised as a specific space through which civil society organisations from different parts of the world can contribute in a structured and sustained manner to the G20, thus ensuring that world leaders listen not only to the voices representing the governmental and business sectors but also to the proposals and demands of civil society as a whole. The objective of this Engagement Group is to generate spaces to discuss and build, through transparent and inclusive processes, high-level policy papers to be presented to the G20 to influence it.

Within the C20 are seven working groups: International Financial Architecture; Gender; Education, Employment and Inclusion; Environment, Climate and Energy; Anti –Corruption; From Local 2Global and Global Health.
During the face to face meeting of the C20, between April 4 and 5 in Buenos Aires Argentina, Mrs Roberta Anido de Pena, the president of the national PID patient group in Argentina, AAPIDP, participated in the Global Heath group meeting, also in representation of IPOPI and FADEPOF (Rare Diseases Argentinian group).

Through this meeting, AAPIDP, IPOPI and FADEPROF, had the great opportunity to continue the previous work done by other actors, discussing different health topics and after the two days, a final statement was put together.
The previous C20 were held in Russia in 2013, in Australia in 2014, in Turkey in 2015, in China in 2016 and in Germany in 2017. The next C20 will be in Japan in 2019.

Mrs Roberta Anido Pena at the C20

C20 Global Health Working Group Statement
  •  We want to state the clear message that we want health to stay on the agenda of the G20, on the quest to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and fulfilment of health as a human right. Government should prioritize the fulfilment of that right for all people.
  •  We demand that governments ensure that UHC incorporates a gender perspective, ensuring sexual and reproductive rights.
  •  We as civil society assume our active and significant role in influencing both the design, implementation and monitoring of policy-making processes.
  •  We demand meaningful participation in the G20. Within this proactive role our expertise, along with the capacity to implement and impact communities, is a key element to achieve UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE
  •  We recognize our role in identifying realities and problems at the community level and actively collaborate in translating policy into practice
  •  The G20 as a forum for the world´s largest economies is in a unique position and have the responsibility to fund multilaterals such as the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI – which brings together public and private sectors for equal access to vaccines), the Global Fund and UNITAID, along with research, development technical assistance.
  •  We recognize that we are not starting from scratch, and that we demand that the G20 plays a key role towards accelerating the response to achieve existing health commitments at the international level, by enforcing the sustainable development goals.
  •  In order to reach this no one should be left behind, the structural barriers and exclusion of vulnerable groups should be removed, and communities should be included to participate in the planning and implementation of policies by including civil society organizations at all levels.