On February 26, the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) / Friends of the Global Fund, Japan (FGFJ) organized a public seminar featuring Dr. Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Dr. Kazatchkine remarked on the close relationship between the Global Fund and Japan, and expressed appreciation for the strong support given by Japan to the creation and subsequent activities of the Global Fund.
Dr. Kazatchkine gave a presentation on the rapid increase in funding worldwide, including creation of innovative mechanisms and greater attention paid to global health with the Okinawa summit of 2000 being the turning point. It is after the Okinawa summit that the Global Fund was founded and has accomplished much to offer treatment to millions in need.
Now faced with the task of replenishment for the years 2011 through 2013, Dr. Kazatchkine emphasized the crucial impact funding availability during these coming years would have on whether the world can achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by its target year of 2015. The Global Fund is committed to further strengthen its contribution in the areas of seeing to the improvement of the overall health system and greater attention to mother and child health in an effort to cover MDGs 4 and 5 as well as its directly concerned area stated in MDG 6. Comments were given by Shigeru Omi, professor of Public Health at Jichi Medical University and regional director emeritus of the World Health Organization for the Western Pacific, followed by an active discussion opened to the floor.
During his brief but intensive one-day stop in Tokyo on February 26, 2010, Dr. Kazatchkine met with various leaders to strengthen the ties between Japan and the Global Fund in the continued fight against communicable diseases and discuss how better to reach the MDGs set for 2015. Starting with a breakfast meeting with FGFJ Diet Task Force members led by Hon. Motohisa Furukawa (DPJ; Senior Vice-Minister of the Cabinet Office) and Hon. Ichiro Aisawa (LDP), he also met with the FGFJ board members, including former Prime Minister and FGFJ Chair Yoshiro Mori. Meetings were arranged with Sadako Ogata, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Senior Vice Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Hiroyuki Nagahama. He also met with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the day as well as at a dinner hosted in his honor by State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Tetsuro Fukuyama.
For more information on this event, please visit the FGFJ website.
