Global Fund welcomes Japan’s new global health policy
01 December 2010
Japan to strengthen maternal, newborn and child health initiatives and links with Global Fund
Geneva, 1 December 2010 – The Global Fund warmly welcomes Japan’s Global Health Policy (2011-2015) which aims to push progress towards the health-related Millennium Development Goals by expanding effective health initiatives for mothers and their new-born babies and strengthening its work in partnership to fight HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.
The policy reflects Japan’s strong commitment to the fight against three infectious diseases, and includes a significant effort to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS. It also strengthens Japan’s support for the Global Fund by aiming for further financial contributions and increased synergies between health programs supported by the Global Fund and Japanese bilateral assistance. Under this policy, Japan, in cooperation with other countries and partners, hopes to avert approximately 470,000 deaths by AIDS, 990,000 deaths by TB and 3.3 million deaths by malaria across the world.
“Japan’s new Global Health Policy is a very important step in the global fight to remove health disparities and will significantly enhance existing efforts to provide the best medical care to mothers and their babies in need in the world’s poorest regions,” says Prof. Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “The policy underscores Japan’s deep commitment to the Global Fund as one of its biggest donors and will allow us to further expand our significant successes in improving the quality of health services in many countries as we strive to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals.”
One of the key elements of the new policy is to ensure mothers and babies get regular access to care (EMBRACE) by creating effective links between communities in need and health facilities and by aligning the work done by multilateral and bilateral health programs.
Japan’s new Global Health Policy is an integral part of its foreign affairs strategy. It was announced in September by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan at the UN Millennium Development Summit along with its financial commitment of 5 billion USD in 5 years from 2011, among which he also committed US$ 800 million for the coming years to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, signaling a major increase in his country’s support for international efforts to combat the three diseases. Japan is one of the top 5 donors to the Global Fund and has so far pledged US$ 2.09 billion to the Fund since it was created in 2002.