A year and a half after the publication of the Dutch Global Health Strategy, the long-awaited committee debate on it took place yesterday in the House of Representatives. An important moment for Wemos, as co-founder and member of the Dutch Global Health Alliance, member of the SRHR platform and one of the organizations that has been advocating for this strategy for years. Whereas in the past global health as a topic could not always count on attention, the House of Representatives was well represented with seven MPs. The Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and the Minister for Medical Care were both also present. During the nearly three-hour debate, a number of topics relevant to Wemos stood out.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and related health services were a hot topic during the debate. Multiple parties such as GroenLinks-PvdA, SP and VVD hammered on the importance of SRHR and access to basic health services to exercise those rights in times where these rights and access are under pressure in many countries. Both the important role of the Netherlands as the third largest donor worldwide in this area, and the crucial role of strategic partnerships such as the Make Way partnership (of which we are the lead partner), were explicitly mentioned. It was good to see that the minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation also described these partnerships as successful and reiterated the importance of SRHR.
Several MPs rightly mentioned that medicines were not available or affordable in many countries in the global South during the corona pandemic. MP Hirsch (GroenLinks-PvdA) argued that vaccines only come about through public investment in the early stages of drug research. She argued that the protection of intellectual property makes access to medicines more difficult, and therefore called for the public interest to weigh more heavily in the granting of patents. Among others, MP Kahraman (NSC) pointed to the high profits of the pharmaceutical industry during the pandemic, and asked the minister whether there could be standards to get a grip on the extremely high profits of pharmacists on products developed with public funds.
The Minister for Medical Care pledged to look again at the Socially Responsible Licensing toolkit, and explore how accessibility and affordability of medicines for people in the global South could be included in it. Both ministers present also confirmed that the Netherlands wants to continue its commitment to local and regional production of medical products. SP and CDA shared the important addition that we must then also ensure that local and regional production actually ends up in the hands of the local population and companies.
Besides substantive comments, a number of MPs also raised questions about the implementation and monitoring of the strategy. For instance, MP Dobbe (SP) rightly asked the minister how the strategy can be fully implemented after the cuts in the development cooperation budget. MP Boswijk (CDA) asked questions about the lack of an implementation agenda and how the House of representatives will be informed in order to monitor the progress of the strategy. This was followed by a commitment from the minister to send an update on the progress report to the House at least before the end of the year.
All in all, we conclude that despite critical notes and areas for improvement, the majority of MPs present see the need for a Dutch global health strategy and support the strategy’s path. Both ministers present emphasized once again that this strategy has broad support and goes beyond development cooperation alone. We were also pleased with the focus on themes relevant to Wemos, such as SRHR and fair access to medical products worldwide.
However, an effective strategy stands or falls with its implementation, and this includes sufficient budget. Wemos therefore hopes that the House of Representatives and the incoming government will continue to recognize the importance of global health and invest in it.
Watch the recording of the debate here or below:
Receive our newsletter
