Policy Updates

On October 10 and 11, 2024, the G7's Health Ministerial Meeting took place in Ancona, Italy. The discussion focused on three overarching priorities: Global Health Architecture and Pandemic Preparedness and Response, healthy and active aging, and the One Health Approach.

The G7 Health Ministers Communiqué, released at the end of the meeting, highlights the G7's commitment to supporting SDG #3 through universal health coverage, primary health care, and sexual and reproductive health. This also includes maternal, neonatal, child, and adolescent health, strengthening the global health architecture by investing in PPR, promoting regional manufacturing of health products, and equitable access to quality health services.

The communiqué emphasized the health-related impacts of conflicts with a reference to the crises in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, and Sudan. Furthermore, in the communiqué, the G7 Ministries committed to continue to support Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund, whose replenishment processes will occur in the upcoming months.

The Civil 7 engagement group, a platform through which civil society can engage with the G7, reacted with a communiqué in which they expressed an appreciation for the re-commitment to ending HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria through robust support for the Global Fund in its replenishment next year. This support is crucial to ending the three epidemics as agreed upon in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Finally, the G7 Health Ministers also adopted a policy brief on the opportunities presented by AI for both healthcare providers and patients.

On May 14-15, 2024, the C7 summit was held at the UN FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, organized by the Italian Civil Society Coalition that led, coordinated, and moderated the C7 2024 process.

Approximately 400 global representatives took part in the event, as well as international decision-makers, including FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu, Italian G7 sherpa Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, Cardinal, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Pope’s envoy for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict Matteo Maria Zuppi, and Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign Marina Ponti.

The official C7 communiqué that listed the international civil society recommendation to the G7’s Leaders around seven key issues was released at the event, which included:

• Economic justice and transformation;
• Climate, energy transformation, and environmental justice;
• Global health;
• Principled humanitarian assistance;
• Peace, common security, and nuclear disarmament;
• Human mobility and migration; and
• Food justice and food systems transformation.

On May 8, 2024, German Development Minister Svenja Schulze met with Jordanian Planning Minister Zeina Toukan and Water Minister Raed Abu Soud to strengthen cooperation on sustainable water supply projects, including a large-scale seawater desalination plant to address Jordan's acute water crisis.

Germany's contributions included an additional EUR15 million (US$16 million), raising its total support to EUR80 million (US$87 million). Additionally, Germany will cancel EUR25 million (US$27 million) of Jordan's debt, provided these funds are reinvested in the water infrastructure project. The partnership is slated to construct one of the world's largest seawater desalination plants and promoting resource-efficient agricultural irrigation. Jordan faces severe water shortages exacerbated by climate change and an influx of refugees.

Germany will support the desalination project, which will deliver water from the Red Sea to northern Jordan and Amman, primarily using renewable energy. The initiative is set to provide clean drinking water to around four million people by 2028.

The partnership also emphasizes resource-efficient irrigation to support Jordan's agriculture sector, which employs many refugees. Germany pledged a EUR200 million (US$217 million) loan to expand wastewater treatment facilities and improve irrigation systems, along with a EUR22 million (US$23 million) grant to ensure high-quality wastewater treatment.

On November 10, 2023, the BMZ announced that it will allocate an additional EUR62 million (US$66 million) to Mauritania to support the costs of receiving and integrating refugees from Mali, following a bilateral agreement with Jordan tackling refugee costs on November 6, 2023.

Germany and Mauritania agreed on a set of measures to help receive and integrate refugees, including employment creation, professional training, and renewable energy. German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze travelled to Nouakchott to strengthen cooperation with Mauritania. Following a wave of violence in neighboring Mali, Mauritania received more than 100,000 refugees and has made efforts to rapidly integrate refugees into its social security systems.

Previously, Schulze committed to supporting refugees in Jordan with a pledge of EUR41 million (US$44 million), in addition to a EUR125 million (US$134 million) loan for water security, which is critical in the region. Almost half of the population in Jordan has migratory ties. Schulze acknowledged Jordan's role as a mediator maintaining peace in the region.

The agreements were concluded against a backdrop of increasingly heated debates in Germany on migration and proposals for tighter asylum regulations. Schulze noted that development cooperation institutions are tasked with combating the root causes for migration.