Former First Lady and chairperson of the One Economy Foundation, Monica Geingos, has called for stronger action to break the cycle of inequality that continues to fuel global health challenges.

Speaking virtually during the G20 Summit at the launch of breaking the inequality pandemic cycle in Johannesburg, South Africa, Geingos highlighted the high concern of inequalities between countries in access to medicines, which made the world more vulnerable to pandemics.

"Brazil already has a global coalition that we support, and the international financial institutions like the World Bank should support and enable that coalition to address the pandemics of today, like AIDS and TB, so that we prepare for those of tomorrow.

The second is that we should automatically waive global intellectual property rules on pandemic technology when a pandemic is declared by the WHO. The third is we need to build an R&D model that treats pandemic health technology as a public good."