In a world facing rising inequality, collapsing health systems, and mounting global threats, this speech makes a compelling case for why Global Public Investment (GPI) is not just timely—it’s essential. Speaking to the urgent need for structural transformation in how global health is financed, Solange Baptiste outlined five ways GPI can move us from charity to justice: through predictable contributions, equitable governance, recognition of community leadership, alignment of national and global priorities, and institutional reform. This vision isn’t about tweaking broken systems—it’s about redesigning them to serve everyone, everywhere. As Solange Baptiste reminds us: the real risk is inaction.
Strengthening Principles for Global Cooperation in the Financing for Development (FfD) IV Outcome Document, Wednesday 2 July 2025, 12:30 pm-2:00 pm.
In a world facing rising inequality, collapsing health systems, and mounting global threats, this speech makes a compelling case for why Global Public Investment (GPI) is not just timely—it’s essential.
Speaking to the urgent need for structural transformation in how global health is financed, Solange Baptiste outlined five ways GPI can move us from charity to justice: through predictable contributions, equitable governance, recognition of community leadership, alignment of national and global priorities, and institutional reform. This vision isn’t about tweaking broken systems—it’s about redesigning them to serve everyone, everywhere.
The real risk is inaction.
There is no other sector that can benefit from GPI now than global public health.
We’ve heard powerful reflections on the principles that should guide the future of financing—but principles alone won’t solve the problem. We need architecture. We need mechanisms. And in health—where timing is life and systems can’t run on hope—we need Global Public Investment.
Let me offer five ways GPI can transform global health financing into something more just, more resilient, and finally—more democratic.
First: predictable, rules-based contributions.
Global Public Investment replaces discretionary aid with systematic, equitable financing. No more hoping a donor ‘feels like’ funding health this year. GPI creates shared obligations, with all countries contributing based on their means. That stability changes everything.
“Predictable contributions mean health systems can plan—not plead.”
Second: it embeds equity into governance.
Today, too many decisions about who lives and who gets left behind are made in rooms where the most affected don’t even have a seat.
GPI demands shared decision-making—real power, not just polite consultation. That means the Global South helps set the agenda, not just receive the results.
“‘Nothing about us without us’ is not a slogan—it must be a structural guarantee.”
Third: GPI formally recognizes the power of communities.
In HIV, COVID-19, and beyond, community-led groups have been the first responders—and often, the last ones still standing. They gather data, deliver services, and hold systems accountable. Want us to move these convos from just sovereign nations but at the sub national level – where exclusion means lives.
Yet they’re still too often treated as peripheral. GPI changes that by enabling communities to be co-financers, co-decision-makers, and co-owners of the solution.
“If communities are trusted to deliver services, they must also be trusted to shape how those services are financed.”
Fourth: it balances national and global goals.
GPI supports countries to invest both inward and outward—strengthening local health systems and building regional resilience.
Think: African-led vaccine manufacturing. Regional surveillance networks. Shared emergency funds.
“GPI makes it possible to protect your people and strengthen your neighbors—because in global health, none of us is safe until all of us are.”
And finally: GPI is a lever for institutional reform.
It doesn’t replace the Global Fund or WHO—but it pressures global health institutions to become more inclusive, more transparent, and more fit for purpose. This is how we future proof the system.
GPI isn’t about replacing institutions—it’s about upgrading them to match our shared future and current needs.
So yes—shared responsibility is possible. But only if it’s baked into how we fund, how we decide, and how we build. As Joseph Stiglitz reminds us, we need a new approach to global public investment—one that prioritizes public goods like health, not just humanitarian response.
Calls for reform (rearranging furniture), though necessary, are not bold enough. GPI offers something deeper: a structural shift—from (as Pin said) benevolence to obligation, from charity to justice.
Let’s stop asking for a seat at the table—and start building the table we all deserve. That’s the promise of GPI: not charity, not leftovers, but justice—funded, governed, and delivered by all of us, for the health of all.
The real risk here is inaction.
Solange Baptiste, Ffd4, July 2, 2025 Notes from Strengthening Principles for Global Cooperation in the Financing for Development (FfD) IV Outcome Document.