Today the Government of Japan and WHO met virtually for their annual strategic dialogue. The overall objectives of today’s discussions were to review and deepen their collaboration on shared global health priorities, and review WHO’s progress towards achieving the triple billion goals: universal health coverage (UHC), health emergencies, and healthier populations.
“The commitment and support of the Government of Japan have been instrumental to the work of WHO, particularly during health emergencies, and to the establishment of the health emergencies programme in 2017,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “I thank the Government of Japan for its longstanding cooperation with WHO to achieve its mission to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.”
Japan is one of WHO’s top contributors. In addition to its strong support to the health emergencies programme and to the Contingency Fund for Emergencies, since 2018 Japan has been moving towards flexible funding and provides much needed support to universal health coverage, particularly on UHC Partnership, antimicrobial resistance, tuberculosis, noncommunicable diseases and mental health. It is also providing invaluable funding support to the aging and health programme.
Next steps will be to identify priority areas for further collaboration that WHO and Japan can promote to move the global health agenda forward and accelerate progress in countries.