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Symposium: “From Okinawa to Toyako: Dealing with Communicable Diseases as Global Human Security Threats”

May 23, 2008
Symposium: “From Okinawa to Toyako: Dealing with Communicable Diseases as Global Human Security Threats”
PM Fukuda, former PM Mori and Michel Kazatchkine of the Global Fund.
PM Fukuda, former PM Mori and Michel Kazatchkine of the Global Fund.

On May 23-24, 2008, more than 150 NGO, business, and philanthropic leaders from around the world met in Tokyo for a major FGFJ conference to explore how the world can respond more effectively to the spread of communicable diseases in developing countries. The conference, which was co-sponsored by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, opened as Japan was preparing to host two prominent international meetings—the Toyako G8 Summit in July and the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) from May 28.

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who serves as chair of the FGFJ, opened the conference by noting how much progress we have witnessed since he hosted the last G8 Summit held in Japan, the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit which helped spark the creation of the Global Fund. Still, he added that “now is the time when we need to look toward the future and decide together what we need to do so that we can have an even greater impact on the lives of people around the world.”

Prime Minister Fukuda
Prime Minister Fukuda

In his address, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the host of the 2008 G8 Summit, pledged a new Japanese contribution of US$560 million to the Global Fund. Focusing on human security approaches to global health issues, he also singled out for special praise the Global Fund’s participatory approach to responses “in which all stakeholders, such as donor countries, recipient countries, international agencies, private corporations, private foundations, and civil society, are jointly engaged in decision-making and the formulation and implementation of programs.”

Sadako Ogata, president of Japan’s ODA agency, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, gave a keynote address in which she stressed the importance of human security approaches in working to improve global health. Then, during the conference’s first full session, Michel Kazatchkine of the Global Fund, Peter Piot of UNAIDS, and Joy Phumaphi of the World Bank shared their assessments of the progress made since 2000 G8 Summit and how much more remains to be done. In later sessions, Keizo Takemi presented the findings of a major working group that has been preparing global health proposals for Japan for the G8 Summit, and leading figures from diverse fields shared their views about how to more effectively build cooperation between different regions of the world and different sectors of society in responding to the global challenge of communicable diseases.

Agenda

Friday, May 23, 2008

Opening Session—Opening Remarks

  • Yoshiro Mori, former Prime Minister, Japan; Chair, the Friends of the Global Fund, Japan
  • Yasuo Fukuda, Prime Minister, Japan
  • Moderator:
  • Tadashi Yamamoto, President, Japan Center for International Exchange; Director, Friends of the Global Fund, Japan

Keynote Address

  • Sadako Ogata, President, Japan International Cooperation Agency

Session I—Reflections on the Eight Years since the 2000 G8 Summit: The Road Behind Us and the Road Ahead

Speakers:
  • Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
  • Peter Piot, Executive Director, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
  • Joy Phumaphi, Vice-President, Human Development Networks, the World Bank
Commentators:
  • Françoise Ndayshimiye, Executive Secretary, National AIDS Council, Burundi
  • Nafisiah Mboi, Executive Secretary, Indonesian National AIDS Commission
Moderator:
  • Nafis Sadik, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Asia and the Pacific

Session II: Moving the Okinawa Vision to the Next Level of Effectiveness

Speakers
  • Keizo Takemi, former Senior Vice Minister for Health, Japan; former Member, House of Councillors of Japan; Senior Fellow, Japan Center for International Exchange; Research Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health
  • Rolf Korte, Faculty of Medicine, University of Giessen
  • Commentators:
  • Mabel Van Oranje, International Advocacy Director, Open Society Institute
  • Alvaro Bermejo, Executive Director, International HIV/AIDS Alliance
  • Moderator:
  • Christoph Benn, Director of External Relations, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Dinner hosted by Mr. Osamu Uno, Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Session III: Communicable Diseases as Global Human Security Threats: New Opportunities for Interregional and Cross-Sectoral Cooperation

Speakers
  • Elizabeth Mataka, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Africa; Vice-Chair of the Board of the Global Fund
  • Nafis Sadik, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for HIV/AIDS in Asia
  • Brian Brink, Senior Vice President Health, Anglo American Corporation of South Africa
  • Moderator:
  • Natasha Bilimoria, Executive Director, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Closing Session

Remarks
    • Yoshiro Mori, former Prime Minister, Japan
Speakers
  • Christoph Benn, Director of External Relations, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
  • Masaharu Kohno, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and 2008 G8 Sherpa, Japan
  • Moderator
  • Tadashi Yamamoto, President, Japan Center for International Exchange; Director, Friends of the Global Fund, Japan

Global Seminar: Innovative Global Networks for Health Society in Africa and Beyond

For more information, see the announcement of the contribution from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2008/2/1178303_980.html

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