Asia Pacific Regional Meeting on Innovative Partnerships for Health: Regional Solutions, Regional Opportunities

October 24, 2011
Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) co-organized a high-level meeting in Tokyo to explore the role of innovative partnerships in improving health in Asia Pacific. As people and goods continue to move across national borders more fluidly, we are finding that infectious diseases also cross borders easily. Similarly, even illnesses or injuries confined to one location can have a profound collective impact on global markets and workforces. In much of Asia Pacific, the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases continues to grow. But we are finding that the region is also increasingly the source of solutions and new resources for health. With the growing burden of disease has come a growing recognition that no sector can deal with the challenges of global health on its own. Rather, we need cross-sectoral partnerships within and across countries if we are going to have a sustainable positive impact. Keeping that need in mind, we have chosen to focus on lessons that can be learned from existing innovative partnerships for health in the region and beyond and on exploring avenues for replicating and scaling up successful examples. The widening health gap in Asia Pacific and the diversity among countries in the region point to the need to step up efforts to more equitably address global health challenges in the region, but they also highlight the fact that there are a plethora of lessons that can be learned from those experiences in the region that have proven successful. These are lessons that should be of interest not just to countries in Asia Pacific but also to their partners around the world. The high-level meeting aimed to achieve the following goals:
  • Examine best practices of innovative cross-sectoral partnerships that have been successful at improving health in Asia Pacific
  • Explore avenues for replicating and scaling up best practices in the region
  • Develop proposals for concrete steps for creating new partnerships for health in Asia Pacific on which all partners can agree
  • Contribute to improved health and wellbeing in Asia Pacific and around the world

The full-day meeting brought together key decision-makers from Asia Pacific, including leaders from the government sector from industrialized and developing countries, traditional and emerging donor organizations, international health organizations, business, foundations, academia, and nongovernmental organizations. Panel presentations presented best practices of innovative partnerships for health in Asia Pacific, followed by in-depth, action-oriented discussion on how lessons learned from the best practices can be applied in order to replicate and scale up the best practices with the ultimate goal of improving health and wellbeing throughout the region. Panels also explored topics related to economies of scale, public-private partnership, and innovative financing.

Co-organized with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan (MOFA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in collaboration with the Japan Institute for Global Health and the Pacific Health Summit. Sponsored by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, GlaxoSmithKline, and ExxonMobil Japan.

AGENDA

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Opening Session

Moderator: Tadashi Yamamoto, President, Japan Center for International Exchange

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Opening Remarks: Asia’s Leadership in Global Health

Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan

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Keynote Speech (via video)

Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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Introduction

Shigeru Omi, Professor, Division of General Practice Center, Jichi Medical University; Regional Director Emeritus, World Health Organization Western Pacific Region (WPRO)

MODERATOR

Kenji Shibuya, Director, Japan Institute for Global Health

PANEL

Triono Soendoro, Senior Advisor to the Minister of Health, Indonesia
Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director General for Polio, Emergencies and Country Collaboration, WHO
Daniel Toole, Regional Director for South Asia, UNICEF
Yoshimasa Takao, Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer, Sumitomo Chemical
Deog-Young Choi, Director of Vaccine Business, Life Science R&D, LG Life Sciences

MODERATOR 

James Chau, Anchor, China Central Television (CCTV); Goodwill Ambassador, UNAID

PANEL

Enrique T. Ona, Secretary of Health, Philippines
Le Quang Cuong, Director of Health Strategy and Policy Institute, Vietnam
Helen Evans, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, GAVI Alliance
Keiko Nakamura, Head, Vaccine Policy Information Office, GlaxoSmithKline
James M. Jones, Community Investment Manager, ExxonMobil Corporation

MODERATOR

Yukio Takasu, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Human Security

SPECIAL REMARKS

Yoriko Kawaguchi, Member, House of Councillors; Secretary-General, Diet TaskForce on Global Polio Eradication

PANEL

Kiyoshi Kodera, Vice-President, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
Jaeyun Chang, Managing Director, Policy Planning Department, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA)
Wade Warren, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

MODERATOR

Kenneth Cukier, Japan Business and Finance Correspondent, Economist

PANEL

Muhammad Arif Azim, Secretary, Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination, Pakistan
Kazuhiko Koshikawa, Director-General, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
Christoph Benn, Director, External Relations and Partnerships, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Richard Henriques, Chief Financial Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Toomas Palu, Lead Health Specialist, World Bank

Call-to-Action and Next Steps

MODERATOR

Susan Hubbard, Senior Associate, Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA)

CLOSING

Yoko Komiyama, Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan

The Japan Center for International Exchange consists of two independent sister organizations.

JCIE/Japan is one of Japan’s leading nonprofit, nonpartisan foreign affairs institutes.
JCIE/USA is a US nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening US-Japan relations and collaboration on shared challenges. 

For half a century, the two organizations have been working together to facilitate policy dialogues, research, and exchange  on key issues affecting peace and prosperity in our two countries, the Indo-Pacific region and the world.

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