The UK Government this year hosts two important events—the G7 (June 11–13) and COP26 (Nov 1–12). The priorities set out by Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his G7 presidency are four-fold: fighting against and recovering from COVID-19; climate action; free and fair trade; and shared values as open societies. Global health will indeed be a concern for the US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and Italy. Some G7 countries have performed poorly in responding to the pandemic. What should be the UK's approach to global health? Last week, Lord Nigel Crisp convened the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health, which he co-chairs, to define a G7 agenda. Peter Piot and Theresa Marteau set the scene. They were surely right to emphasise the importance of preparing to live with COVID-19, providing global access to vaccines, and improving overall population health as a core part of future pandemic preparedness. But it was Robin Niblett, Director of Chatham House, who sought to offer a board, comprehensive, and realistic assessment of the UK's opportunity for global leadership, based on his recent paper Global Britain, Global Broker.
© 2020 Prof Heidi Larson
Niblett argues that in a “splintered world” at “heightened global risk” the UK should seek to be a global broker of solutions to global challenges. The UK has the assets, credibility, and resources to do so, he believes. But we must recognise that we are now manoeuvring solo in a much more turbulent world. Democracies are less cohesive. Post-Trump transatlantic mistrust is high. Prospects for international cooperation cannot be taken for granted. Niblett identifies six areas where the UK has a comparative advantage to make a difference—protecting liberal democracies, promoting peace and security, tackling climate change, championing more transparent and fairer economic growth, defending cyberspace, and delivering global health resilience. The UK Government has already identified several priority issues in global health—global health security, international standards for clinical trials, antimicrobial resistance, and digital health. 2021 will be, according to Niblett, “a pivotal year for the UK”. But he seemed optimistic about the UK's ability to enhance its global influence.
© 2020 Paul Musso
I am less confident. The UK Government needs to appraise its international reputation with brutal honesty in the aftermath of the pandemic. COVID-19 has revealed some areas where the UK has done well (vaccine roll-out, for example). But there are areas where our performance has been, to put it politely, suboptimal. In other domains—Brexit, the government's threat to break international law, cutting development aid, and using unhelpfully aggressive political language towards our neighbours—our international reputation has been undermined. It might be wise for the UK to enter its G7 presidency with a degree of modesty. To restore our standing, we need to promote institutions and policies that support, enlarge, and deepen international cooperation. There are two areas where the UK could make important contributions. First, we must lead the call (backed by investment) for a stronger WHO to enhance global health security. This pandemic has shown the vital role WHO plays (or should play) in preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious disease outbreaks. WHO will certainly need reform. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Liberia's former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, will make important recommendations for WHO's reform in their final report, to be published in April. The UK should invite Clark and Sirleaf to present their recommendations to the G7. A second area where the UK can lead is one in which the country has succeeded—science. A surprisingly neglected fundamental right—to be found in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—is the right to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. In April, 2020, the UN published General Comment 25, which set out the practical implications of the right to science. The UK could lead the G7 in becoming an international champion of that right. We could make important progress to identify concrete ways to ensure the availability of research, accessibility to its applications, the quality of its products, its acceptability to citizens, and the protection of freedoms to do scientific research. The G7 meeting in June is a moment for the UK to make global health and science the foundations for a more cooperative world.
© 2020 Richard Gardner/Shutterstock