Since the COVID-19 pandemic, financing for health from private investors and asset managers has increased dramatically between 2020 and 2024 and healthcare private equity reached USD 480 billion. Yet many in the health sector remain unaware. The G20, through the G20 Joint Health and Finance Taskforce (G20JHFTF), has acknowledged the need to enhance health financing, particularly during the Italian (2021), Indonesian (2022), Brazilian (2024) and South African (2025) Presidencies. Recent efforts focused on innovative financing tools yet, broader systemic reforms are needed to reframe health, not merely as a public sector concern, but as a core pillar of financial stability, economic resilience, and geopolitical security.

This paper argues that, to effectively address debt sustainability issues of G20 economies, the G20 shall endorse a joint definition on what sustainable finance for health means for the health and finance community in terms of delivering high societal and economic returns to save and drive productivity growth, create jobs, stabilise economies, and enhance long-term financial returns. The authors also recommend that the G20, particularly through the Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG), shall encourage the development of national or regional health taxonomies as strategic investment tools to align the communication between policymakers, companies, and investors. The health taxonomy provides a tool for strategic boardroom discussions, investment committees, and policy planning sessions to evaluate how it can be applied or adapted to current portfolios and strategies. The health taxonomy could support more systematic assessments of health-related risks and economic impacts, including through existing processes such as the IMF’s Article IV consultations and other macroeconomic surveillance frameworks that are relevant to G20 finance ministries.