Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) is a member organization of the Civil Society Commission (CSC) established by the World Health Organization (WHO). As a member of the CSC, HGPI has endorsed the recently published recommendations document “Health Financing: Civil Society Perspectives on the Path to 2030.” This document was compiled by the WHO CSC Sustainable Health Financing Working Group. HGPI was the only organization from Japan to serve on this Working Group, and it contributed to drafting the recommendations. At the time of publication, more than 112 civil society organizations from around the world had signed on to the recommendations, with HGPI serving as the only signatory from Japan.

Background of the Recommendations

According to the latest data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Official Development Assistance (ODA) fell by 23.1% in 2025—the largest annual decline ever recorded. Global health financing has reached a structural turning point. In low- and middle-income countries, shrinking aid and rising debt repayments are compounding one another, and these countries are rapidly losing the fiscal space needed to meet the health goals they have set, including the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). In addition, research published in The Lancet warns that, if current trends continue, up to 5.4 million additional deaths among children under the age of five could occur by 2030.

Overview of the Recommendations

Against this backdrop, the recommendations strongly call for a shift in perspective—viewing health not as “a cost to be cut,” but as both a fundamental human right for everyone and a strategic “investment” that drives economic and social returns. Ahead of the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA) and the 2027 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on UHC, the recommendations present the following four points to Member States and WHO:

1. Protect life-saving services and invest in primary health care (PHC) (addressed to Member States): investing an additional 1% of GDP in primary health care; taking stock of services lost to funding cuts and reintegrating them; and explicitly protecting at-risk service areas, including mental health, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
   
   
2. Mobilize domestic resources and maximize the impact of health spending (addressed to Member States): mobilizing domestic public funds through budget prioritization and progressive taxation, including health taxes; concerted action on illicit financial flows and timely, fair debt resolution; maximizing the impact of every health dollar through evidence-based, equity-driven spending decisions; and institutionalizing health-finance coordination mechanisms that leverage civil society as a permanent accountability partner.
   
   
3. Institutionalize social participation and civil society engagement in health financing processes (addressed to WHO and Member States): building on stronger implementation of the resolution on Social Participation adopted at the 77th WHA (WHA77), this includes consultation with documented feedback loops as a minimum standard; formal civil society representation in governance and decision-making bodies; and direct funding for civil society organizations (CSOs), including grassroots organizations and those representing marginalized groups.
   
   
4. Enable civil society engagement in health financing transparency and accountability (addressed to WHO and Member States): strengthening WHO’s global observatory function; publishing data disaggregated by gender, disability, geography, age, and socioeconomic status; ensuring that Member States submit timely national health accounts (NHA) to WHO within 12 months of the reference year; supporting civil society-led monitoring for independent tracking; and establishing open-access data as the default standard, along with clear data governance rules.

In particular, HGPI emphasized two points. First, actively leveraging the “UHC Knowledge Hub” promoted by the Government of Japan is essential for advancing sustainable health financing. By facilitating knowledge exchange both domestically and internationally, the Hub enables the scaling and adaptation of proven best practices across countries. Second, HGPI called for the establishment of a consultative body that brings together the Ministries of Health and Finance, donors, and affected communities. This body would be established in cooperation with national governments and civil society and with the active support of the WHO Director-General, with the aim of strengthening collaboration not only with WHO headquarters but also with its Regional and Country Offices.

Dialogue Event with the WHO Director-General

On Tuesday, May 19, 2026, during the 79th WHA, a dialogue event was held to deliver these recommendations directly to WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and it concluded as a great success. This event served as the final installment of a three-part dialogue series conducted in partnership with Save the Children. The series began with a side event at the 78th WHA in May 2025, “Securing Investments in Global Health: Time for a New Approach.”
As a member organization of the WHO CSC and a member of its Sustainable Health Financing Working Group, HGPI will continue to contribute actively to international discussions on health financing, including the 2027 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on UHC.