To promote meaningful involvement of people with lived experience, including patients, people living with health conditions, their families and carers, service users, and other members of the public, in prefectures and municipalities, Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) organized a national conference for local governments. The goal was to further encourage and support sustainable and effective meaningful involvement in the policymaking process for a wide range of people with lived experience in local governments. The conference brought together healthcare and welfare policy administrative officers from nine local governments with a strong interest in meaningful involvement. Following expert presentations, discussions focused on the current state and challenges of meaningful involvement, with particular emphasis on three key points: “Ensuring the number, diversity, and legitimacy of participating subjects (people with lived experience),” “Practices, establishment, and promotion methods of meaningful involvement in local governments,” and “Methods of actually reflecting voices surfaced through meaningful involvement in policy.” Together with lived experience experts with extensive experience in health policymaking, participants shared initiatives, best practices, and challenges from each local government, leading to active exchanges of opinions.

Based on the insights gained from this conference, we will continue to advance efforts across the country to promote meaningful involvement.

The Discussion Points from this conference can be found here.

 

[Event Overview]

• Date & Time: Monday, November 11, 2024; 13:00-16:00 JST
• Format: In-person only
• Venue: Global Business Hub Tokyo
  (Grand Cube 3F, Otemachi Financial City, 1-9-2, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)
• Participants: Healthcare and welfare policy administrative officers from local governments
• Language: Japanese
• Hosted by: Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI)
• Supported by: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW)

 

[Program] (Titles omitted)

Opening Remarks / Explanatory Introduction

Ryoji Noritake (Chair, HGPI)

Keynote Speech 1 “Policy Formation and meaningful Involvement”

Akira Morita (Representative Director, Next Generation Fundamental Policy Research Institute (NFI))

Keynote Speech 2 “Good Practices of Meaningful Involvement – Toward a Fair Involvement Process”

Fumihiko Wakao (Deputy Director, Center for Cancer Control and Information Services, National Cancer Center Japan)

Opinion Exchange Session “Toward the Practice of Meaningful Involvement

Case Study
Group of Department of Health and Welfare for Persons with Disabilities, Symbiotic Promotion Headquarters, Division of children welfare for a future, Kanagawa Prefectural Government.

Participants:
Kyoko Ama (Representative, Children and Healthcare Project; Fellow, HGPI)
Shinsuke Amano (Chair, The Japan Federation of Cancer Patient Groups; CEO, Group Nexus Japan)
Akira Morita (Representative Director, Next Generation Fundamental Policy Research Institute (NFI))
Fumihiko Wakao (Deputy Director, Center for Cancer Control and Information Services, National Cancer Center Japan)
Healthcare and welfare policy administrative officers from nine local governments

Moderator:
Yui Kohno (Manager, HGPI)

 

Closing Remarks

Shinya Tsuruta (Director, Cancer and Disease Control Division, Health Service Bureau, Ministry of Health, Labour and welfare)