PART I
: Global Health Outcomes from the Toya-ko Summit
PART II
: G8 Pledges for Global Health
PART III
: HIV/AIDS and Global Health - G8 Guidebook
- » Part III--TOP
- 1. The G8 Process
- 2. The General Flow of the G8 Process
- 3. Creation of Civil Society Networks in Host G8 Country for the G8 Process
- 4. Global Health as an Agenda Item
- 5. Media and Civil Society
- 6. Towards the G8 Summit: Initial Phase (January - February 2008)
- 7. Towards the G8 Summit: Mid-Phase (March - April 2008)
- 8. G8 Summit Process: Civil G8 Dialogue
- 9. Towards the G8 Summit: Final Phase (May - June 2008)
- 10．G8 Summit: International Media Center
- 11．G8 Summit: The Alternative Summit
EPILOGUE
: Civil Society and the G8 Process: Creation of an Insitutuional Memory
PART III: HIV/AIDS and Global Health - G8 Guidebook
6.Towards the G8 Summit:
Initial Phase (January - February 2008)
- Overview
- Sherpa Meeting
- The World Economic Forum (Davos)
- G8 Health Experts Meeting
- Global Health Summit
1Overview
The official transfer of the summit chair occurs on January 1 of the new calendar year, but consideration for major agenda items or the policy positions they will take has already began as the actual summit of the previous year came to an end. The major agenda items of the G8 includes issues that that were well-prepared beforehand and urgent issues that have occurred recently and must be addressed in a global scale. In the context of the 2008 G8 Summit process, global health was an issue that has been well-prepared for beforehand and the recent sharp rise in food and fuel costs are recent issues that must be addressed.
From January to February of the new year, the issues that have been prepared for are narrowed down, decided upon and then presented to the public. Typically, decisions on the agenda items are made at the Sherpa Meeting in January. There has been a tradition that the chair of the G8 attends the World Economic Forum, held in the latter half of January every year, to announce the major agenda items of the G8. In 2008, Prime Minister Fukuda attended the World Economic Forum, and in a special session chaired by Tony Blair, the former Primer Minister of the United Kingdom, made a speech in which he announced the major agenda items of the G8 to include global health.
Now that the decision and the announcement have been made, the chosen issues would now be part of the G8 process and the policy making process on the issues will be in full force. In the experience of the 2008 G8 Summit process, from February 13 to 14, the first G8 H8 Health Experts Meeting was held. Furthermore, on February 16, Health Policy Institute Japan (HPIJ), a think tank on Japanese health policy, with the cooperation of the World Bank, hosted the Global Health Summit, aimed mainly at national policy makers in Japan. If global health becomes one of the main agenda items of the G8, there may be a possibility that private sector driven health policy forums and the summit process to be intertwined.
2Sherpa Meeting
Brief Overview
- The Sherpa meetings, as the name suggests, are meetings held by the Sherpas of the G8. The Sherpa meetings, held approximately once a month, functions as a steering committee on the substance of the G8 Summit. The dates and the places of the meetings are kept private for security reasons.
- The Sherpas are the backbone of the G8 policies. At the meetings, the Sherpas plays an important role of consolidating the trends or policies of each G8 country on the major agenda items, and then find the direction they would take on those agenda items. To ensure civil society can hold an effective advocacy, civil societies of each G8 country must create a relationship of mutual trust with their respective Sherpas and/or relevant official, proactively hold meetings or discussions, synthesize the information they have gathered, analyze the policy direction of each country, and using the analysis, hold a coordinated advocacy.
Experience from the 2008 G8 Process: The first Sherpa meeting
- The first Sherpa meeting for the 2008 G8 Summit was held towards the early part of January 2008 in Japan. The G8 NGO Forum did not carry out any out of the ordinary advocacy towards this first Sherpa meeting.
- Generally, in Japan, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs (Economic) serves as the G8 Sherpa, thus making Mr. Masaharu Kohno, the G8 Sherpa for the 2008 G8 Summit. In addition, Mr. Yoichi Otabe, the Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Ministry, and Mr. Rintaro Tamaki (later Mr. Takehiko Nakao), Senior Deputy Director-General of the International Bureau of the Ministry of Finance served as the sous-sherpas (also known as sub-sherpas). As G8 NGO Forum, there were limited opportunities to meet directly with Sherpa Kohno, such as the NGO and Government Dialogue Meeting on G8 Summit, held in February. However, civil society was able to hold more frequent meetings with Otabe Sous-Sherpa and Koro Bessho, director general of international Cooperation Bureau of the Foreign Ministry, who was in charge of issues related to poverty, development and MDGs.
3The World Economic Forum (Davos)
Brief Overview
The World Economic Forum (Davos Conference) is an annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland, of top leaders in business, finance, national politics and intellects of the world, taking place in the latter half of January. Dubbed as the World's Rich Man's Club, civil societies of the world in opposition, created the World Social Forum, first launching in 2001 at Porto Alegre, Brazil. But with growing acknowledgement of the important role of civil society in the policy decisions of global issues, the hosts of the World Economic Forum began to invite the participation of dominant international NGOs. For example, in issues related to poverty and global health, Oxfam International participated in the Forum. Furthermore, Bono (Data/One serves as the policy team to Bono), vocalist of U2 actively engaged himself at the World Economic Forum and carried out meetings with heads of states and members of the media.
The World Economic Forum and the G8 Summit: The role of Civil Society
- The G8 Summit is one of the areas of interest at the World Economic Forum with a tradition that the chair of the G8 Summit attends the Forum and participates in a session in which he/she will announce the major agenda items of the G8 Summit. Although, by the time of the Forum, the major agenda items of the G8 are virtually decided unofficially, civil society can still work to influence the speech of the chair of the G8. Usually, the speech by the head of state is broadcasted on the web and the footage is made public on television.
(See: http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/wef/2008/address-s.html ) - Civil Society can take the following actions:
- Work in cooperation with think tanks and institutions/organizations of the G8 host country associated with the World Economic Forum to make recommendations on the speeches of the G8 Summit Chair.
- To work in cooperation with notable figures working on global health issues participating in the World Economic Forum (such as Bono and Jeffrey Sachs) to advocate to the G8 Summit chair.
- To have international NGOs (such as Oxfam International and Data/One) to monitor the statements and remarks of the G8 chair and find possible advocacy routes.
Experience from the 2008 G8 Process
- The G8 NGO Forum made the World Economic Forum a point of focus, and released a four page statement as a response to the speech Prime Minister Fukuda made at the special session. This statement was disbursed to members of the media. (See: REFERENCE: [ Ref.1 ] )
- The G8 NGO Forum coordinated with a Japanese think tank on health and medical policies, the Health Policy Institute of Japan (HPIJ), which is also involved in the organization of the World Economic Forum. Coordination with HPIJ began to form during the February Global Health Summit, which was also hosted by this think tank.
- There was information sharing from the two international NGOs that participated in the World Economic Forum, Oxfam International and World Vision International.
Global Health Civil Society Symposium (February 6, 2008)
4G8 Health Experts Meeting
Brief Overview
- Within the G8 process, several Ministerial meetings according to various topics takes place. A G8 Health Ministerial meeting does not exist, thus, within the G8 process, there is a lack of ministerial level meetings on the issue of health.
- Although not a complete substitute to the Ministerial Meeting, the G8 Health Experts meeting was set up by an initiative of the Japanese Government for the 2008 G8 Summit in order create a draft for global health policy. The creation of the G8 Health Experts meeting is a response to the speech made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Masahiko Koumura in November 2007 to develop a set of common framework for action shared by the international community. Each G8 government chose a health expert to draft the Common Framework for Action, and the gathering of these health experts became what is now known as the G8 Health Experts meeting.
- The G8 Health Experts Meetings were held three times (February, April and June) throughout the G8 Process. In addition, the health experts met several times among themselves at an adjustment meeting up till moments before the actual summit.
- Whether the G8 Health Experts Meeting will be held for future summits is yet to be determined. However, it is safe to assure that Global Health will be on the agenda until 2010 since the outcome of the 2008 Summit, the Common Framework for Action, created a follow up mechanism. Thus, there is a high possibility that a meeting similar to the G8 Health Experts Meeting will be held for the next Summit.
Experience from the 2008 G8 Process
- The office in charge of G8 global health policies of the Japanese Government and the Foreign Ministry are the Global Issues Cooperation Division of the Office of Director General for Global Issues. Mr. Jun Yamazaki, in addition to serving as the chair of the Health Experts meeting, also served as the head of the Japanese delegation to the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
- Even before the G8 Health Experts Meeting took place, there were already some informal dialogue among the Global Issues Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and various sectors including civil society. As for civil society, the Global Health Committee of the G8 NGO Forum held "Study Sessions", four times throughout December to February 2007. These study session provided an opportunity for the government officials to take in the expertise on global health issues of civil society, while gathering objective information on the global health policies of G8 Countries.
- The themes of the Study Sessions are as follows:
- HIV/AIDS and Infectious Diseases
- Maternal and Child Health
- Health System Strengthening
- Dialogue with International NGOs
- ・ In these sessions, there were opportunities to have dialogue with international NGOs. On, February 6, notable NGO leaders working on various global health issues (see guest below), were invited by the Global Health Committee to hold a dialogue with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (See: REFERENCE: [ Ref.2 ] )
- Valerie DeFillipo（International Planned Parenthood Federation）
== Maternal and Child Health - Lucy Chesire（Kenya AIDS NGO's Consortium）
== infectious diseases（Tuberculosis & HIV/AIDS） - Mogha Kamal-Yanni（Oxfam, Great Britain）
== Health System Strengthening & HIV/AIDS - Rotimi Sankore (Africa Public Health Rights Alliance）
== Health System Strengthening & HIV/AIDS
- Valerie DeFillipo（International Planned Parenthood Federation）
- From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, several staff members involved in global health issues in the Global Issues Cooperation Division participated in the session, and actively exchanged ideas and information.
- On February 7, the Global Health Committee held a symposium on Global health titled Civil Society Symposium on Global Health: What world's civil societies expect from Japan toward TICAD IV and G8 Summit. The four international guests participated in the panel to speak about global health policies and the G8. There were over 200 audience members, as well as coverage from leading media stations, including NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation).
- This process allowed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to have a concentrated discussion on global health policies with leaders of national and international civil societies before the G8 Health Experts meetings takes place. Furthermore, we believe that this was a valuable opportunity for them to gain comprehension on the current direction of global health policies. For Japanese civil society, this was a significant step in building a relationship of mutual understanding with those in charge of policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Breakdown of the Health Experts Meeting
- The first Health Experts Meeting was held from February 13-14. Participants, in addition to the G8 Health Experts, were international institutions working on global health issues including the WHO, UNAIDS, UNFPA, the World Bank, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Private Foundations such as the Gates Foundations and experts from the AU. The purpose of the meeting was to create a draft of the Common Framework for Action, and the participants primarily listened to the statements of experts from each country and institutions and organizations. NGOs were not officially invited to the Health Experts Meeting and were only allowed participation in the reception that followed. Proposals made by the Health Experts on global health issues that are accompanied by the issue of financial contribution, are made under the condition that it received consensus from the meetings of the Sherpas.
- The Second Health Experts Meeting was held from April 9-10. Participants, in addition to the G8 Health Experts include international institutions and other associated institutions, organizations and foundations. At this meeting, the first draft of the Common Framework for Action was put on the table, and consisted of discussions around this draft. Civil society submitted a demand paper in lieu of the Second Health Experts Meeting.
- The Third Health Experts Meeting was held from June 11-12. At this meeting, the final draft of the Common Framework for Action was drafted. Each G8 country expressed their different opinions in the "struggle" for the position and content of the Common Framework for Action. There was a tug-of-war on each issue, which continued through the June 23-25 Sherpa Meeting and even until the day of the actual Summit. Even after the meetings had ended, various unofficial processes took place among the health experts to settle issues on this document.
5Global Health Summit
Brief Overview
- Several events titled Global Health Summit has been held, but the organizers and the content of the summit are extremely diverse. For example, the 2005 Global Health Summit was hosted by TIME Magazine with the promotion of the Gates Foundation. With private foundations and think tanks as the core discussants and with the addition of members of NGOs and international organizations, discussed issues in global health. Furthermore, in 2007, the American Public Health Association held Global Health Summit II.
- The Global Health Summit (See:http://www.global-health-summit.org/ ) held in Tokyo in February of 2008 was significantly different to the previous Global Health Summits. This Global Health Summit was hosted by the Health Policy Institute Japan (HPIJ), a think tank on Japanese health policy, with the cooperation of the World Bank. The Summit was aimed at high-level people in the Japanese Government and Economy and holds a significant role in the policy making process for TICAD and G8, with the purpose of conveying them the importance of global health. Invitations to the Summit were given to 100 key persons and included speeches from Junichiro Koizumi, former Japanese Prime Minister, Sadako Ogata, President of JICA and Joy Phumaphi, Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank. Such events with the aim to educate high-level people in Japan are significant in a country where understanding of the importance of global health in the global agenda is lacking.
- There is a possibility that a Global Health Summit may take place in future G8 host countries for the purpose of putting focus on the issues of Global Health for the G8. The hosts of the 2008 Global Health Summit in Japan (HPIJ and the World Bank) is looking into that idea.
Experience from the 2008 G8 Process
- The Global Health Committee of the G8 NGO Forum made contact with HPIJ as soon as they had information on the Global Health Summit in Tokyo. The Forum had learned from the host (HPIJ) that this summit will be different from the 2005 Summit hosted by TIME Magazine, and that the purpose will be to create awareness of global health issues among policy-makers in Japan. Several invited NGO members attended the Summit.
- On the day after the Summit (February 16), to aid in the effort of HPIJ and the World Bank, the G8 NGO Forum Global Health Committee held a Global Health Experts Session. Guest speakers included Joy Phumaphi, Vice President for Human Development at the World Bank and Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Chairman of the Health Policy Institute in Japan. From the side of the NGO, Masaki Inaba of the Global Health Committee made a speech (the content of the speech is attached: REFERENCE: [ Ref.3 ] ).
There was participation from noted international institutions and organizations and representatives of the government that has participated in the G8 Health Experts Meeting and the Global Health Summit. This has helped ferment their confidence in the policy-making abilities of Japanese NGOs.
PART I
: Global Health Outcomes from the Toya-ko Summit
PART II
: G8 Pledges for Global Health
PART III
: HIV/AIDS and Global Health - G8 Guidebook
- » Part III--TOP
- 1. The G8 Process
- 2. The General Flow of the G8 Process
- 3. Creation of Civil Society Networks in Host G8 Country for the G8 Process
- 4. Global Health as an Agenda Item
- 5. Media and Civil Society
- 6. Towards the G8 Summit: Initial Phase (January - February 2008)
- 7. Towards the G8 Summit: Mid-Phase (March - April 2008)
- 8. G8 Summit Process: Civil G8 Dialogue
- 9. Towards the G8 Summit: Final Phase (May - June 2008)
- 10．G8 Summit: International Media Center
- 11．G8 Summit: The Alternative Summit