[EQ] Global Action for Health System Strengthening: Policy Recommendations to the G8

Global Action for Health System Strengthening: Policy Recommendations to the G8

 

Task Force on Global Action for Health System Strengthening, January 16, 2009
Japan Center for International Exchange

 

The final report of the Working Group on Challenges in Global Health and Japan's Contributions was submitted to the Japanese and Italian governments in January 2009 for consideration for the 2009 G8 Summit agenda.

 

English: PDF file Full report [131p] at: http://www.jcie.org/researchpdfs/takemi/full.pdf

·         Download full report ( Japanese | Italian) [2.4 MB PDF]

·         Download by chapter:

·         Table of Contents [56 KB PDF]

·         The G8 and Global Health: Emerging Architecture from the Toyako Summit (overview), Keizo Takemi and Michael R. Reich [376 KB PDF]

·         Opportunities for Overcoming the Health Workforce Crisis, Masamine Jimba 644 KB PDF]

·         Strengthening Health Financing in Partner Developing Countries, Ravindra P. Rannan-Eliya [996 KB PDF]

·         Toward Collective Action in Health Information, Kenji Shibuya [652 KB PDF]

·         Appendices (report background, team members, & acknowledgements) [176 KB PDF]

 

The Lancet Features the Takemi Working Group Report (January 15, 2009)
"G8 and strengthening of health systems: follow-up to the Toyako summit," by Michael R. Reich and Keizo Takemi (free registration required)

·         Also online at the The Lancet—excerpts from keynote speeches at November 3–4, 2008, International Conference on Global Action for Health System Strengthening:

·         "Primary Health Care as a route to health security," by Margaret Chan, Director General, World Health Organization

·         "Strengthening health systems to promote security," by Julio Frenk, Dean, Harvard School of Public Health

On January 16, 2009, a high-level working group on global health convened by the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) released a report to the Japanese government outlining measures that the G8 countries should take to set them on a path toward fulfilling their existing commitments to contributing to an overall improvement in the health of individuals and communities around the world.

The Working Group on Challenges in Global Health and Japan’s Contributions (the “Takemi Working Group”) is chaired by Japan’s former Senior Vice Minister for Health, Labour and Welfare Keizo Takemi and directed by JCIE President Tadashi Yamamoto. The Japanese government will pass the report to the Italian government, encouraging them to put these recommendations on the agenda of the 2009 G8 Summit in Italy.

The report includes chapters by an international team of researchers and advisors on three specific building blocks of health systems—health financing, health information, and the health workforce—that are generally acknowledged to be critical components of any strong health system. While each paper offers specific recommendations for improvements that can be made in each individual building block, they also come to several common conclusions:

1.     While there is still a dire need for more resources—financial, human, and knowledge resources—in the global health field, there is also a critical need to use existing resources more efficiently and more effectively. Recognizing that the current global financial environment will make it even more difficult to secure the resources needed to make health systems work better for everyone, the paper writers recommend complementing the quest for more resources with creative thinking on ways to achieve better health outcomes with the resources we already have.

2.     The human security concept, which has become a pillar of Japan’s foreign policy, is identified as a promising approach that can be adopted globally for strengthening health systems. Human security’s emphasis on the wellbeing of individuals and communities is very much in line with the ultimate goal of health system strengthening: improving people’s health and making health services available to all so that they can be healthy, productive members of society. Human security also responds to the complexity of health system strengthening with its focus on integrating community empowerment with protection strategies and its recognition of the dynamic way in which health is interconnected with many other human security challenges.

3.     In all areas of health system strengthening, donor countries tend to tell their partners in developing countries how they should behave and make decisions. This can lead to confusion, with contradicting instructions often coming from multiple donors and even from single donors, and loss of motivation for stakeholders in partner countries to take ownership of processes to improve their own health sectors. Contributing to this challenge, capacity for making informed decisions on health is often weak, further discouraging domestic decision making in planning and management of health systems. The paper writers all recommend that donor countries invest in capacity building for health sector decision making at the national and local levels and, at the same time, encourage stakeholders in partner countries to drive their own planning and implementation processes.

4.     Finally, the paper writers all recommend that the G8 follow through on its commitment to accountability by establishing an annual review of its activities and accomplishments within each of these three building blocks.

The Takemi Working Group was launched in September 2007 as Japan was preparing to host the 2008 G8 Summit and the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development. The working group is unique in Japan and is the first major initiative to bring together global health experts from the relevant government ministries (foreign affairs; health, labor, and welfare; and finance) as well as those from Japan’s aid agencies, NGOs, research institutes, and academia to discuss strategies for keeping global health high on the G8 agenda. Following the Toyako G8 Summit in July 2008, the working group answered the Japanese government’s call for clear recommendations for following up on the G8 commitments to global health and launched a task force to develop the current report. An earlier version of the papers in the report appeared online in the Lancet :

Reich MR, Takemi K. G8 and strengthening of health systems: follow-up to the Toyako summit.
Lancet 2008; published online January 15. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61899- http://www.jcie.org/japan/j/pdf/gt/cgh-jc/lancetarticle090115.pdf

 

Hard Copies & Information

To request a hard copy of the report or for more information on the working group’s activities, please contact the secretariat:

Website:  http://www.jcie.or.jp/thinknet/takemi_project/

In Asia: JCIE Attn: Tomoko Suzuki Program Officer

4-9-17 Minami Azabu Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0047 Japan

Tel: +81-3-8403-7781 Fax: +81-3-3443-7580

 

Outside of Asia: JCIE/USA Attn: Susan Hubbard Senior Associate

274 Madison Avenue, Suite 1102 New York, NY 10016 USA

Tel: +1-212-679-4130 Fax: +1-212-679-8410 shubbard@jcie.org

 

 

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