The InterAction G8/G20 NGO Coordination Group applauds the G8’s decision in 2009 to improve accountability on its global health commitments and to build on the revised "Toyako Framework for Action on Global Health." To leverage President Obama’s Global Health Initiative and galvanize international action by the time of the September 2010 UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG) Summit we encourage the United States and other G8/G20 leaders to take the steps enumerated below. Such actions should be reinforced by continued G8-civil society dialogue, and periodic meetings of G8/G20 Health/Development Ministers.

Recommendations

InterAction’s G8/G20 NGO Coordination Group urges the U.S. government to take a strong leadership role at the June 2010 G8 Muskoka Summit and G20 Toronto Summit. We request that the following recommendations be included in the respective communiqués.

1. Prioritize Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) needs and ensure the necessary international investment to achieve MDGs 4

2. Honor commitments to achieve MDG 6

3. Ensure G8 support for the health MDGs is guided by the Paris Declaration Aid Effectiveness Principles and is integrated with responses to other global challenges—Efforts to achieve the MDGs must be country-led, strengthen whole health systems to ensure sustainable and measurable outcomes, and be integrated with responses to other global challenges such as hunger and nutrition, water and sanitation, and climate change.

1 and 52 — The G8, under U.S. leadership, must commit to finalize a global MNCH consensus and to fund fully its share of resources for strategies and programs to accelerate reduction of MNCH mortality and morbidity in developing countries. This will require at least a doubling of donor investment and exploration of global funding mechanisms focused on MNCH. Such commitments should be included in a global action plan to be endorsed at the UN MDG Summit.3 and fulfill Global Fund needs—G8 leaders must fulfill commitments to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care through robust bilateral programs. They need to help bridge the $5 billion shortfall in the Global Fund (GFATM) referenced in the 2007 G8 communiqué. The U.S. must pay its fair share and leverage this to ensure G8 nations close the GFATM gap and meet commitments on AIDS, TB, malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) more broadly. G8 countries must also work collaboratively with international coordinating bodies on these fronts.

4. The G20 must commit to an accountable way to provide its fair share of support for achievement of MDGs 4, 5 and 6—Given its significant share of global resources, the G20 should exercise greater responsibility for achievement of the health MDGs. The U.S. and other G8 nations should lead the rest of G20 countries to add health and other development priorities to its Pittsburgh Summit framework for strong, balanced and sustainable growth and adopt accountability mechanisms for such commitments.