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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
As global leaders prepare for the G20 Summit in South Africa, WifOR Institute joined The G20 & G7 Health and Development Partnership to launch a new report titled “The Health Taxonomy – The Need for a Common Investment Toolkit to Scale Up Future Investments in Health.”
The paper was shared at the World Health Organization headquarters during the Health20 (H20) Summit on June 20th in Geneva and aims to frame health as a pivotal investment essential to economic stability, climate resilience, and social equity.
The toolkit fills a critical gap in global health financing: the absence of a shared language and structure for directing investments across the public and private sectors. This new framework seeks to inform policymakers, development banks, investors, and international institutions by offering a toolkit to evaluate, compare, and prioritize health-related spending based on measurable socioeconomic outcomes.
“In economic crises, health investments are strategic drivers of economic growth and employment – particularly in regions facing recession. Demonstrating their impact is crucial to shaping financial decisions, as many investors remain unconvinced that health spending generates economic returns,” states Prof. Dennis Ostwald, CEO of WifOR Institute and lead contributor to the report.
Recommendations for action
The framework outlines five steps for scaling up health investments:
1. Developing a shared definition of sustainable health financing to eliminate ambiguity and strengthen policy coherence.
2. Structuring a common framework to guide investment decisions based on measurable and verifiable impact.
3. Promoting capital incentives to mobilize financing for health.
4. Engaging standard-setting institutions such as the WHO, OECD, and the World Bank for validation and alignment.
5. Refining the toolkit in dialogue with ministries, investors, industries, civil society, and academia.
A Proposal Anchored in the SDGs
The toolkit is grounded in pillars that reflect the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to good health and well-being (SDG 3), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), and climate action (SDG 13):
• Health drives economic value: Strengthening the health sector boosts productivity, employment, competitiveness, and innovation.
• Climate-health link: Health investments must consider upstream environmental impacts.
• Social equity: Investments should prioritize fair working conditions along the health supply chain.
• Planetary health: Healthy ecosystems contribute directly to societal well-being and wealth.
• Prevention in focus: Reducing the burden of diseases minimizes economic losses.
The report was authored by Hatice Beton (Executive Director, The G20 & G7 Health and Development Partnership), Dr. Roberto Durán-Fernández (Associate Professor, School of Government, Tec de Monterrey), in close collaboration with Prof. Dennis Ostwald (CEO & Founder, WifOR Institute), and Prof. Rifat Atun (Director, Health Systems Innovation Lab, Harvard University).
WifOR Institute’s Head of Strategy & Business Development Kay Petrisor presented the report in Geneva alongside an expert panel, including representatives from the G20 Joint Finance and Health Taskforce and the Agence Française de Développement.
To access “The Health Taxonomy” and learn more about the investment toolkit, visit: https://www.wifor.com/en/download/the-health-taxonomy-the-need-for-a-common-inve...
About WifOR Institute
WifOR is an independent economic research institute, founded in 2009 as a spin-off from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. As experts in macroeconomic analysis, WifOR's research focuses on health, sustainability, and labor markets. Through our studies, we aim to highlight the value of health investments worldwide, set global standards in impact measurement, and enable data-based solutions to labor market challenges.
About The G20 & G7 Health and Development Partnership
The G20&G7HDP is a not-for-profit advocacy organization representing over 27 global health organizations from across the public and private sector, as well as academia. Their goal is to ensure G20 countries coordinate their current and future health innovation strategies to tackle the growing global burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases and promote the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) by 2030 with a focus on SDG 3 “health and well-being for all” and SDG 17 “strengthening partnerships.”
Prof. Dennis Ostwald
dennis.ostwald@wifor.com
Beton, H., Durán-Fernández, R., Ostwald, D., Atun, R. The Health Taxonomy – The Need for a Common Investment Toolkit to Scale Up Future Investments in Health; published online on June 20th, 2025. https://www.wifor.com/en/download/the-health-taxonomy-the-need-for-a-common-inve...
https://g20healthpartnership.com/
Participants of the H20 Summit 2025, including the Director-General of the World Health Organization ...
Copyright: G20&G7HDP
Authors and supporters of the Health Taxonomy paper (from left to right): Hatice Beton, Dr. Roberto ...
Copyright: WifOR Institute
The Health Taxonomy – The Need for a Common Investment Toolkit to Scale Up Future Investments in Health
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