Who We Are

Mission

Friends of the Global Fund, Japan (FGFJ), is dedicated to strengthening support in Japan for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a major international funding mechanism for fighting communicable diseases.

FGFJ supports the Global Fund by creating an enabling environment in Japan for an effective response to the spread of HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases. It seeks to encourage Japan to expand its role in the battle against these diseases while raising awareness about the impact they have—both inside Japan and around the world—and about the lifesaving role of the Global Fund. FGFJ reaches out to key decision-makers in the Japanese government to encourage more support from Japan’s public and private sectors and help create more synergy between Japan’s global health policy and the Global Fund. Meanwhile, FGFJ also aims to convince the general public and policy-maker constituents that supporting the Global Fund is in Japan’s national interests as well as the best interests of the global community.

History

Japan played a key role in the Global Fund’s initial conception, serving as the host of the 2000 Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit, where world leaders first agreed to establish a multilateral fund to mobilize and allocate resources from around the world to fight three of the most devastating diseases threatening human lives and human security. Since the Global Fund was launched in 2002, Japan has been one of its top donors, contributing an average of around US$8 million a year between 2002 and 2004.

In 2004, Friends of the Global Fund, Japan (FGFJ), was established as a special initiative of the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE). Its work draws heavily on JCIE’s long history of convening leaders across sectors and across national borders to develop joint responses to some of the world’s most pressing and cutting-edge challenges. The model that JCIE and FGFJ use in all of their activities is one based on partnership, inclusivity, respect, and shared interests.

Since its establishment, FGFJ has convened international conferences, roundtables, seminars, and study sessions on topics related to communicable diseases and the role of the Global Fund; organized awareness-raising events in Japan with the Global Fund and other partners; conducted research and dialogue projects on the state of communicable diseases in Asia, as well as on various types of responses to their spread; taken politicians, journalists, and other influential leaders on site visits to activities supported by the Global Fund; and publicized key messages about communicable diseases and the role of the Global Fund in fighting them. FGFJ’s commitment to awareness and action have resulted in drastic increases in Japan’s contributions to the Global Fund.

FGFJ Diet Task Force

Under FGFJ, a Diet Task Force has been created to examine ways to broaden Japan’s international role in combating the global threats of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other communicable diseases.

FGFJ Advisory Board

The FGFJ Advisory Board is made up of leading figures from various sectors of Japanese society–government, business, civil society, medicine, and academia–who are actively involved in the work of the FGFJ.

About JCIE

FGFJ is a special initiative founded and operated by the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE). Founded in 1970, JCIE is an independent, nonprofit, and nonpartisan organization dedicated to strengthening Japan’s role in international networks of policy dialogue and cooperation. JCIE undertakes a wide range of programs of policy research, international dialogue, and exchange related to the themes of globalization, governance, and civil society. It has been promoting policy studies and dialogues focused on human security issues since the late 1990s, when it launched a five-year groundbreaking dialogue program, An Intellectual Dialogue on Building Asia’s Tomorrow, which helped develop the concept of human security.

FGFJ works closely with the JCIE’s program on Global Health and Human Security to promote synergies between Japan’s response to communicable diseases and its efforts to strengthen health systems more broadly.