How Science Diplomacy Might Unite Asian Innovation

The year 2015 reminded political leaders and the public that people’s safety is a genuine challenge at a time of disease epidemics, terrorism, refugee and migration crises, and climate change among others in our global era. The recent Ebola virus outbreaks in west Africa exposed weaknesses in core global functions, such as the provision of global public goods, management of cross-boarder externalities and fostering of leadership and stewardship. The outbreaks reiterated the imminent need to strengthen both national and global health systems and governance. In May 2016, Japan will host the first G7 Summit since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the end of the Ebola crisis—a key opportunity to move the global health agenda forward. The G7 could advance the global health agenda and strengthen health systems at global and national levels by identifying joint actions that contribute to the development of comprehensive cooperation in global health. In this regard, Japan has a strong legacy of putting global health on the G7 agenda and rallying countries to take action at past summits it has hosted. Japan’s leadership on infectious diseases at the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit of 2000 directly led to the establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Japan’s leadership on health systems strengthening at the Hokkaido-Toyako Summit in 2008 brought greater global attention to health financing, health workforce, and health information as core inputs to health systems. Japan will renew its commitment by placing global health on the agenda at the 2016 G7 summit and lead G7 countries and partners in discussing the collective challenges the world faces and the most effective and equitable responses. This presentation reviews challenges and proposes actions in global health for Japan at the upcoming G7 Summit.