Participants

Co-Chairs: Dr Mercy Mwangangi, Kenya; Dr John-Arne Røttingen, Norway

Steering Group members and alternates: Ayah Nayfeh, Global Affairs Canada; Dr Polydor Kabila, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Ghana Health Service; Lynda Wardhani, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia; Jin Hashimoto, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan; Samrita Sidhu, FCDO, UK; Atul Gawande and Nidhi Bouri, Global Health Bureau, USAID; Faith Nfii, Africa CDC; Gabriella Fésüs, DG International Partnerships, European Commission; Desta Lakew, Amref Health Africa; Kieran Daly, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;  Beck Smith, Wellcome.  

Observers: Susan Sparkes, WHO

Commitments Task Team Co-Chairs: Gerald Manthalu, Ministry of Health, Malawi; Anna Seymour, FCDO, UK

Secretariat: Linda Muller.

Regrets

Roman Macaya, Costa Rica; Dr Ruth Nigatu, Ministry of Health, Ethiopia; RD Marte, APCASO; Oswaldo Adolfo Rada Londoño, Senderos Asociación Mutual; Omar Abdi, UNICEF; Hajime Inoue, Health, Nutrition, and Population, World Bank.

Steering Group reflections and actions: Lusaka Agenda, outcomes of recent meetings

Members noted the productivity, thoughtfulness, and positivity that characterized the FGHI process, recognizing the momentum it has generated for advancing the agenda.

USAID noted that they are taking specific actions from the Lusaka Agenda forward through the Community Health Delivery Partnership where they will, inter alia, discuss primary health care and community health worker metrics. It was suggested that it would be good to take some time for a medium-term Friends of Global Health arrangement to be developed and in the meantime that it would be useful to begin to track actions being taken by different organizations.

A number of participants highlighted the importance of post-UHC Day follow-up to ensure that the Lusaka Agenda outcomes are integrated into the workplans of different board committees. The Gavi governance committee discussion in Accra was highlighted as an important step forward.

SG members emphasized the importance of widely disseminating the Lusaka Agenda. Japan will be translating key conclusions into Japanese and sharing with other government ministries and stakeholders and be highlighting them at a UHC Day reception in New York. The Secretariat noted the Lusaka Agenda will be translated into French and Spanish.

The FGHI co-chairs will write to GHI board chairs and directors sharing the Lusaka Agenda, appreciating their engagement throughout the process and asking for their follow-up. A suggestion was made for board constituencies to write to GHI board chairs and directors.

Driving implementation of Lusaka Agenda actions

Steering Group members discussed the formation of a four-month post-FGHI transition arrangement, in the form of an interim working group, to:

  • help anchor the Lusaka Agenda on the agendas of the GHI boards and the African Union, and begin to drive its implementation, and,
  • engage with stakeholders, incl GHIs, CSOs and a broader group of donors and implementing countries, to design the modalities of a global health financing alignment arrangement, to consider how to operationalize the key shifts also in the broader global health financing ecosystem.

Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Ghana Health Service, and Desta Lakew, Amref Health Africa, will serve as co-chairs of the interim working group, with a HIC representative to be named soon. (NB after the Steering Canada was confirmed as the third co-chair.)

Most SG members on the call expressed a desire to stay involved as members of the interim working group. Of note, several other donor and implementing partner countries have indicated an interest in also getting involved. Wellcome pledged to extend financial support for a scaled-back secretariat for the four-month transition, and expressed the hope that more activities could be taken on by other partners. As a complement to this, Wellcome offered in-house support to help design the process to get us to the next phase and indicated the possibility of additional support for the next phase, ideally alongside other partners.

Mercy and John-Arne pledged to stay involved and to ensure a solid handover to the incoming working group co-chairs.