BACKGROUND :

With just ten more years until 2030, the target year for the SDGs, there is a pressing need for Japan to reassess how to utilize its ODA in a more strategic manner to advance global health, adapt to structural shifts in the development field, and increase the efficacy and impact of its funding in order to help achieve SDG3. In November 2019, JCIE launched the public-private Special Commission on Japan’s Strategy on Development Assistance for Health (Chair: Hon. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, former Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare) to reevaluate Japan’s development assistance for health (DAH). The commission is reviewing the track record of Japanese support for low- and middle-income countries’ efforts to achieve UHC on the ground., and it will explore ways for Japan to utilize its ODA to better assist these countries in achieving SDG3 and other related goals by 2030 through better collaboration with multilateral institutions, private sectors, NGOs, and other stakeholders. In order to maintain the relevance of Japan’s DAH strategies in a changing global health landscape and ensure closer alignment with national strategies, it is critical to have a dialogue with national and global health leaders about the commission’s preliminary thought on the key directions that Japan's DAH strategy should take.