Universitas Indonesia (UI) held a series of UI International Conference on G20 with the theme “Boosting Indonesia’s Role in G20 Presidency 2022”, at JW Marriott Hotel Jakarta, on 15–16 June, 2022. This event is designed as a forum for exchanging ideas and conferences to bring together scientists and policy makers to jointly formulate policy brief in supporting Indonesia’s G20 Presidency of 2022. Formulating policy recommendations based on evidence is a form of contribution of scientists in translating research results so that it has practical implications for policy makers and the community. The challenges facing Indonesia and the world today open up opportunities for scientists to collaborate across various disciplines, as well as open up space for dialogue to strengthen Indonesia’s G20 Presidency.
The G20 Indonesia 2022 presidency sets out three priority issues, namely Global Health Architecture, Sustainable Energy Transition, and Digital and Economic Transformation. In the issue of Global Health Architecture, Indonesia has three main challenges, including equitable distribution of health facilities and access to vaccines and medical devices; standardization of global health protocols for all countries in the world; and development of global manufacturing and knowledge centers for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (Pandemic PPR).
The three main challenges in the issue of the Global Health Architecture were answered by UI researchers through various findings that would later be used as policy brief for the government. The research team from the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) UI, Prof. Fatma Lestari, S.Si., M.Si., Ph.D., through the study “Harmonization of Global Health Standard Protocols for Covid-19”, conveyed the need for standardization of world health protocols to overcome the global pandemic. According to Prof. Fatma, there is a need for harmonization of Covid-19 tests, Covid-19 vaccines, operation of Covid-19 tests, and Covid-19 data infrastructure to make it easier for people to travel to various countries, especially to G20 member countries. In addition, this harmonization also helps in handling potential pandemics in the future.
The idea of harmonizing standardization of world health protocols was agreed by a researcher from the Faculty of Medicine (FM) UI, Prof. Dr. dr. Budi Wiweko, Sp.OG. According to Prof. Budi, in compiling this standardization, there are things that need to be considered, including compiling road map implementation of harmonization of global health protocols; conditioning the consequences for member countries that fail to comply with the harmonization of the global health protocol plan; establishing a special board to follow up the adoption and implementation process; building appropriate digital literacy programs through promotional content; and creating “easy-to-use” applications with an easy-to-adoption system.
Another policy brief that UI researchers offer to the government is the development of innovations in the health sector with the G20 countries. Dr. dr. Irma Bernadette Tiorita Simbolon, Sp.KK.; dr. Diantha Soemantri, M.Med.Ed., Ph.D.; and Prof. Dr. dr. Soehartati Argadikoesoema, Sp.Rad., Sp.Rad(K). are researchers from FM UI offering innovations in the field of disease prevention and treatment. In the prevention section, dr. Diantha offers healthy living literacy for children to create a healthy lifestyle in the community. Dr. Diantha assesses that health literacy in children at school has an impact on families and communities because children will act as reminder agents, for example related to smoking habits or littering.
Meanwhile, in the treatment section, Dr. Irma through her research “Patterns of Cooperation Across G20 Member Countries in the Field of Education, Research, and Services in Dermatology and Venereology (DV)” sees that there is no form or pattern of cooperation between DV specialist doctors in Indonesia and DV specialist doctors in G20 member countries. According to Dr. Irma, this collaboration can extend DV sciences in terms of understanding the disease and its management which will improve services for DV patients. In line with this, through a study entitled “The Roadmap of Strategically Fulfilling Radiotherapy Access Needs in Developing Countries: Indonesia as a Model”, Prof. Soehartati highlighted the high need for radiotherapy for cancer patients. However, the allocation of health funds for cancer treatment is minuscule. Therefore, collaboration between the government and the G20 countries is needed to better deal with cancer.
Apart from doctors, policy brief from health research are also offered by social sciences researchers. Broto Wardoyo, S.Sos., MA, Ph.D. (Faculty of Social Science and Political Science); Muhammad Syaroni Rofii, S.H.I., M.Si., Ph.D. (School of Strategic and Global Studies); Dr. Abdillah Ahsan, S.E., M.S.E. (Faculty of Economics and Business) examines health issues from diplomatic, social, and business perspectives. According to Broto, strengthening health diplomacy with G20 countries can be done through accessibility to raw materials (supply chain security) as well as strengthening regional blocking at WHO. Meanwhile, internally, it is necessary to simplify regulations and coordination. Meanwhile, from an economic and social perspective, the Indonesian government needs to make the G20 a forum to express its aspirations so that countries with a supply of supplemental vaccines do not hold back on exports of vaccines or drugs when stocks in developing and poor countries are inadequate.
The discussion which was divided into two sessions was also done by Prof. Achir Yani S. Hamid, MN., DN.Sc. from the Faculty of Nursing with his research entitled “Strengthening Nurse Competence and Resilience Among G20 Countries in a Global Health Architecture: Literature Review and Research-Based Policy Paper”. Prof. Achir Yani highlighted the opportunities for cooperation with G20 countries based on the quality and competence of Indonesian nurses. According to him, there needs to be a clear policy to protect Indonesian nurses who have international careers.
Collaboration with G20 countries certainly cannot be separated from the involvement of highly qualified human resources. dr. Kemal Nazaruddin Siregar, S.K.M., M.A., Ph.D. from the Faculty of Public Health submitted Agile Health Ecosystem 5.0 as an effort to democratize the health system in the post-pandemic era. Agile Health Ecosystem 5.0 propose an ecosystem that facilitates various parties to create joint solutions. This approach promotes human-centred and inclusive health policy with multiple stakeholders, in addition to putting the public as the heart of policy-making. Through this innovation, it is expected that the democratization of the healthcare system in the post-Covid-19 era will involve many parties, especially the community itself.
