Comments on: Questions for the G20: A crisis response or real governance change? http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/blog/2009/11/questions-for-the-g20-a-crisis-response-or-real-governance-change/ from the Global Economic Governance Programme at the University of Oxford Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:39:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Will Global Health Break the Back of the G20? | the GEG blog http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/blog/2009/11/questions-for-the-g20-a-crisis-response-or-real-governance-change/comment-page-1/#comment-11628 Will Global Health Break the Back of the G20? | the GEG blog Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:22:25 +0000 http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/blog/?p=602#comment-11628 [...] Back in November, I blogged about what the G20 might mean for health, and argued that drawing any substantive conclusions back then was premature. The issue of the G20 in health was taken up in a big way by the new Global Health Security Centre at Chatham House which organized a one day conference on ‘What’s next for the G20? Investing in health and development’. [...] [...] Back in November, I blogged about what the G20 might mean for health, and argued that drawing any substantive conclusions back then was premature. The issue of the G20 in health was taken up in a big way by the new Global Health Security Centre at Chatham House which organized a one day conference on ‘What’s next for the G20? Investing in health and development’. [...]

]]> By: James Kondo, Vice Chairman and President, Health Policy Institute, Japan http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/blog/2009/11/questions-for-the-g20-a-crisis-response-or-real-governance-change/comment-page-1/#comment-6675 James Kondo, Vice Chairman and President, Health Policy Institute, Japan Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:52:36 +0000 http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/blog/?p=602#comment-6675 I agree with your observation that much is still to be determined, and a fundamental question is "is this good for the world - including those not represented in the G20". If one looks at the share of GDP, trade, banking activities, CO2 emissions - it is clear that you need a G20-like organization to get anything substantive done. G8 is simply too small a share of these measures to affect a meaningful change in economic, financial, or climate change discussions. Global Health is different in that G8 countries constitute 85% plus of health related ODA. This raises a few issues: - Why bother increasing members for ODA discussions unless G20 countries chip in additional resources? - Is it meaningful to talk only about ODA? If we took health spending, G8 would constitute a much smaller share. Thus, issues of health system strengthening, pandemic preparedness, intellectual property, chronic disease management etc may make sense to discuss. - Even if global health retains its focus on ODA, and G8 actually makes more sense as a grouping, is it realistic to assume that health carries such a weight within the overall global issues as to effect institutional shift from G8 to G20? I agree with your observation that much is still to be determined, and a fundamental question is “is this good for the world – including those not represented in the G20″.

If one looks at the share of GDP, trade, banking activities, CO2 emissions – it is clear that you need a G20-like organization to get anything substantive done. G8 is simply too small a share of these measures to affect a meaningful change in economic, financial, or climate change discussions.

Global Health is different in that G8 countries constitute 85% plus of health related ODA.

This raises a few issues:
- Why bother increasing members for ODA discussions unless G20 countries chip in additional resources?

- Is it meaningful to talk only about ODA? If we took health spending, G8 would constitute a much smaller share. Thus, issues of health system strengthening, pandemic preparedness, intellectual property, chronic disease management etc may make sense to discuss.

- Even if global health retains its focus on ODA, and G8 actually makes more sense as a grouping, is it realistic to assume that health carries such a weight within the overall global issues as to effect institutional shift from G8 to G20?

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