Health and Medical Care

November 6, 2023
Japanese

Highlights of G7 Health Discussions

As the G7 Presidency, Japan hosted the G7 Health Ministers' Meeting in Nagasaki on May 13-14, 2023, and the G7 Hiroshima Summit on May 19-21, 2023. At the Hiroshima Summit, in Session 6 " Working Together to Address Multiple Crises " on May 20, the G7 members and eight invited countries including India, the G20 Presidency in 2023, and seven invited organizations including WHO and the World Bank [Note 1] discussed and centered on the following three pillars: 1) developing and strengthening the global health architecture (GHA) [Note 2] for future public health emergencies; 2) contributing to achieving more resilient, equitable, and sustainable universal health coverage (UHC) [Note 3]; and 3) promoting health innovation to address various health challenges.

  • [Note1]
    • Eight invited countries: Australia, Brazil, Comoros (chair of the African Union (AU)), Cook Islands (chair of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)), India (G20 chair), Indonesia (ASEAN chair), Korea, and Vietnam.
    • Seven invited organizations: United Nations, International Energy Agency (IEA), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Bank, World Health Organization (WHO), and World Trade Organization (WTO).
  • [Note 2] Global health architecture (GHA) is defined as the relationship between the many different actors engaged in global health and the processes through which they work together (Kickbusch et al 2012).
  • [Note 3] ‘Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship.’ (quoted from WHO UHC WebpageOpen a New Window)

Overview of G7 Health Outcomes

In Session 6, "Working Together to Address Multiple Crises", Prime Minister KISHIDA pointed out the importance of leader-level governance and international norm-setting for structuring and strengthening the global health architecture (GHA), as well as a perspective of "soft governance" as flexible coordination among existing organizations. Regarding the achievement of UHC, he stated that the G7 will highlight its financial contributions totaling more than $48 billion from the public and private sectors, and will support efforts to achieve UHC, including by promoting impact investments and implementing the "G7 Global Plan for UHC Action Agenda". In addition, as for promoting health innovation including to respond to pandemics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the G7 announced the G7 Hiroshima Vision for “Equitable Access to Medical Countermeasures (MCMs)” and launched the “MCM Delivery Partnership for equitable access (MCDP)” as a concrete initiative based on the vision.
At the Presidency Press Conference on the last day of the summit, Prime Minister KISHIDA stated that with the COVID-19 pandemic being contained, we deepened discussions and confirmed solidarity on issues such as global health to prepare for “the next crisis”. With regard to global health, Japan, as part of the G7’s overall financial contributions, expressed its intention to make contributions totaling more than 7.5 billion dollars from the public and private sectors, including a 200 million dollars pledge for the GHIT Fund (Global Health Innovative Technology Fund).

Related Links

Back to Health and Medical Care