Informal Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Type II Partnership/Initiatives on Health

CHAIRS SUMMARY

August 2002

On August 6th, 2002, representatives from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Venezuela, Zambia, European Commission, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, and NGO representatives gathered at the Institute for International Cooperation of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Tokyo to participate in the Informal Meeting for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) Type II Partnership/Initiatives on Health. This Informal Meeting was held under the co-chairmanship of Japan and South Africa and aimed at sharing views and priorities for international cooperation on health. In particular, the meeting gave a unique opportunity to promote a better understanding of partnerships on health toward WSSD to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 26th.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Japanese Vice Foreign Minister, Mr. Seiken Sugiura made the welcoming address. The Director-General of Western Pacific Regional Office of World Health Organization, Dr. Shigeru Omi, followed with the keynote speech, highlighting the strong link between health and sustainable development.

Representatives presented and discussed potential criteria for Type II Partnership/Initiatives with the need for integrated and comprehensive approaches being stressed. Characteristics of successful partnerships would include integration of national social and health policy; avoidance of fragmentation and duplication; sustainability; an integrated and multisectoral approach; and south-south, south-north and north-north exchanges.

The Meeting considered partnerships to be central for achieving good health, and that existing partnership/initiatives should be strengthened rather than replaced. Clarification between Type II and Type I was discussed with consensus falling on the need to provide complementarity and to promote adequate resources for Type II partnerships. In that regard, importance was placed on both ownership and partnership together. Consequently, many of the representatives share the view that further cooperation and coordination, especially for technical assistance for capacity building in developing and, most importantly, implementing proposals, would help to make the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and other existing global health initiatives more effective. Partnerships on all levels should also be promoted to tackle other crucial health issues, some of which are more specific and localized, including communicable diseases, reproductive and child health, and environmental health which are not covered by the GFATM or other global initiatives. Partnerships might be composed of many different actors, including governmental and non-governmental organizations. Some discussion also centered on the best form of private sector involvement in partnerships for health. Practical coordination of partnerships at the country level was raised, particularly vis-à-vis the role of the government or UN organizations, as an area in need of greater attention and support.

Recognizing the increased attention health has received under WSSD, many presentations addressed the need to systematically raise and advocate clear health messages during WSSD, particularly focussing on major health issues such as HIV/AIDS, the economic benefit of investing in health and the need to incorporate cross-sectoral approaches. The management of health professionals migration as part of a broad human resources development program was identified as an area of major concern. In addition, the need to strengthen the capacity of NGOs and coordination between them and government at the field level was also highlighted. The Meeting noted that the challenge for the health sector is to balance critical measures aimed at addressing health problems, once they have arisen, with efforts in preventive measures such as health education and raising of health literacy, provision of safe water/sanitation, immunization, etc.

The representatives expressed the need to follow up the discussions, in particular, the areas for further cooperation. Experience from existing partnerships, including lessons on monitoring and evaluation, should be shared broadly, and coordination across partnerships should take place to help avoid duplication or redundancy. For that purpose, they agreed that Japan, host of this meeting, would share a summary of this meeting with the Minister of Health, of South Africa prior to the August 26th session on health in WSSD.

All participants in this informal meeting expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Japan International Cooperation Agency for having successfully organized this meeting.