Location: San José, Costa Rica
Date: 10 - 11 November, 2004
Hosted by: University for Peace

Context: Despite overall progress in terms of average life expectancy and other health care indicators, many countries are presently experiencing declines in the health of their citizens. The importance of good health is multi-faceted. At an individual level it is necessary for realizing personal aspirations in terms of education, social interaction, and economic livelihood. At the population level, good health is a prerequisite for economic growth. Globally, the transmission of epidemic disease threatens our common security.

Given that the infectious disease challenges are often multiple (Flu pandemic, SARS, HIV/AIDS, TB, Hepatitis) and multidimensional (e.g., the need to consider factors such as poverty, deprivation, disempowerment, gender inequality and access to health services), it is important to adopt a multi-sectoral, multifaceted, and global systemic approach that goes beyond public health sectors and existing assistance programs. The needed credibility and authority in implementing such a systematic approach could be brokered in a Leaders' level summit. Specifically, an L20 could address global health issues by: bringing neglected issues onto the global health agenda; providing opportunities for scale efficiencies in cooperation; and creating intersectoral engagement.

Papers

David L. Heymann		Briefing note on public health security to the L-20 group of countries
Colin I. Bradford, Jr.		Global Health and Global Governance: Prioritizing Health within the Framework of the Millennium Development Goals
David Fidler		L20 Communiqué on Global Health
Yanzhong Huang		Building A Global Bio-Defense Shield
Ricardo Kuchenbecker		The Inverse Capacity Building Law: From Technical Assistance to Technical Cooperation Towards Global Health
Ruth Levine		Making Markets for Vaccines
Anil Soni		Conjectural Communiqué

Backgrounders

Tim Evans, Drager, Pablos-Mendez and Cassels		L-20 and Global Public Health.
Tim Evans, Assistant Director General - Evidence & Information for Policy, World Health Organization		Infectious Diseases & Global Health