G8 and strengthening of health systems: follow-up to the Toyako summit

ABSTRACT

The 2008 G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, produced a strong commitment for collective action to strengthen healthsystems in developing countries, indicating Japan’s leadership on, and the G8’s increasing engagement with, globalhealth policy. This paper describes the context for the G8’s role in global health architecture and analyses three keycomponents—fi nancing, information, and the health workforce—that aff ect the performance of health systems. Wepropose recommendations for actions by G8 leaders to strengthen health systems by making the most eff ective use ofexisting resources and increasing available resources. We recommend increased attention by G8 leaders to countrycapacity and country ownership in policy making and implementation. The G8 should also implement a yearly reviewfor actions in this area, so that changes in health-system performance can be monitored and better understood.