> JAPANESE

You mentioned Japan's role in the establishment of the Global Fund. What is the role of Japan in the Global Fund today?

Japan has played a tremendous role in the Global Fund from the beginning, including the G8 Summit in Okinawa, where we were born. Actually, Prime Minister Abe was there as a key team member with then-Prime Minister Mori. Japan has been one of the largest funders of the Global Fund and is currently one of our top financiers. But it's not just the origins and the money that have been important. From the beginning, Japan has been an intellectual leader. The country's academic community, non-governmental organizations and advocacy community, and the Japanese government—regardless of which party is in power—and a cross-party group of Parliamentary members, have all strongly supported the Global Fund.

In addition to monetary, political, and advocacy support, Japan also provides intellectual and policy leadership for the Global Fund through its prioritization of universal health coverage, a policy Japan implemented domestically in the 1950s, and human security. As Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese government have highlighted, both policies proactively promote investing in solutions that facilitate access to health care and education that will lead to economic opportunity. The policy leadership the government brings to our Board is incredibly valuable.

What role does the private sector in Japan play in the Global Fund's work?

Japan has contributed its know-how and brain power on productivity and commodities since 2009. Between 2009 and 2016, the Global Fund purchased US$440 million worth of commodities from companies in Japan, including new and innovative products. One of the best and most effective drugs against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is produced by Otsuka. We see new and innovative products that are coming forward from Japan's private sector as incredibly important. And Japanese pharmaceutical companies, namely Takeda, give resources to the Global Fund.

You mentioned the importance of partnership and global solidarity in the Global Fund's history. Partnership also forms the foundation of the GHIT Fund's structure and work in accelerating global health R&D. What are the key ways you see the GHIT Fund foster global health innovation?

GHIT is a really important innovation in and of itself. It is a great example of a public-private partnership that was created to foster R&D in a way that advances the goals of achieving universal health coverage and human security, which are cornerstone policies of Japan's health and foreign policies.

By having that leadership from the Japanese government and commitment from the Prime Minister, and fully engaging the private sector, GHIT is a model that other countries can replicate. Stimulating the private sector to support global public health is an extraordinary thing.

You have engaged in and led many public-private partnerships throughout your career. What factors do you see as key to making such partnerships successful?

Successful public-private partnerships like the Global Fund rest on a few key things—things which we just talked about GHIT. One is political leadership. Without political leadership, partnerships fall apart pretty quickly. Additionally, full engagement of the private sector and a true understanding that companies need to be responsive to shareholders, and provided with incentives to engage, are hugely important in a public-private partnership.

That's what GHIT was designed to do, to actually see the incentives that were possible to open up marketplaces because of the political leadership, but also because of the partnership and relationships that Japan has through the Global Fund, Gavi, UN system, and academic and non-profit organizations. There is a marketplace out there. Companies have to tell their shareholders that what they're investing in makes a difference.

Opening up a market, which GHIT really does, helps accelerate the beginning of the innovation through to the delivery. When you have a market, lower-cost products sold at high volume actually have a good profit incentive and deliver a good return to shareholders.

Public-private partnerships work when there's something for everyone, when we're all meeting each other's needs and expectations, and when we understand the differences among the organizations. Leveraging those differences to maximize output and outcomes is the key to create a successful partnership.

Looking ahead to the next 5-10 years, what are your hopes for how Japanese entities will help transform global health policy?

If Japan does over the next 15 years what it has contributed over the last 15 years, we'll be in great shape. This includes continuing their financial contributions. Prime Minister Abe made a very large commitment to global health as part of last year's G7 Ise-Shima Summit. Japan has also shown tremendous leadership around the SDGs in the government's Universal Health Coverage commitment. In addition to the 2016 G7 Summit, Tokyo International Conference of Africa's Development VI (TICAD VI) was held in Africa for the first time, and it was a tremendous success. GHIT and the Global Fund received a tremendous contribution from the US$ 1.1 billion for global health, which was split across several organizations and announced by Prime Minister Abe.

But this is not just about financial resources. The resources support the ideas that came from Japan, including Universal Health Coverage, human security, and then link them to the private sector. Japan has always participated in the ideas and the resourcing, as well as the private sector providing innovative commodities, and looking to the future and continuing to stimulate those ideas.