Comment

Health as an instrument of foreign policy

The 2008 G8 summit in Toyako, Japan, produced a strong commitment for collective action to strengthen health systems in developing countries, indicating Japan's leadership on, and the G8's increasing engagement with, global health policy. This paper describes the context for the G8's role in global health architecture and analyses three key components—financing, information, and the health workforce—that affect the performance of health systems. We propose recommendations for actions by G8 leaders to strengthen health systems by making the most effective use of existing resources and increasing available resources. We recommend increased attention by G8 leaders to country capacity and country ownership in policy making and implementation. The G8 should also implement a yearly review for actions in this area, so that changes in health-system performance can be monitored and better understood.

Global health is attracting an unprecedented level of interest. In this paper, we summarise recent trends and identify the unfinished and new agendas in global public health. We propose a global public health scorecard as a simple way to assess progress and suggest actions by public health practitioners and their organisations for improving the effectiveness of public health. Although we find many recent positive developments in global health, the potential for global cooperation and progress is still largely untapped. Compared with other components of development, health improvement should easily foster global cooperation; strong advocacy and political will are keys to continuing progress. We view global public health as a barometer of more general development. Our responses to the current health challenges are at the forefront of the global struggle for survival.