Pandemic proof: Exploring Japan's role in strengthening pandemic preparedness financing

The lasting effects of COVID-19, and the rise of emerging outbreaks like mpox, highlight the critical need for adequate pandemic preparedness and response (PPR) financing—especially for pre-committed funds that can be available the moment a public health threat emerges, also known as surge financing. The government of Japan has long advocated for strengthening global PPR, championing initiatives within the G7 and G20, and has played a pivotal role in advancing global health security and ensuring the world is better equipped for future threats.

In this episode of Pandemic Proof, host Javier Guzman is joined by two guests from the Ministry of Finance of Japan—Takahiro Tsuda, Director for Multilateral Development Banks, and Atsushi Mimura, Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs—to examine the current funding mechanisms for PPR, explore Japan's role in driving global efforts (and insights gained), and discuss potential pathways to strengthen PPR financing.

"Universal health coverage is not just a health policy; it is also an economic policy. It’s a key of sustainable growth strategy," says Atsushi Mimura. "Emerging and low-income countries should not only rely on concessional external funding resources from the outside, but they should also make sure they can allocate their own domestic resources more to this very important health policy, which is also the seeds for the next day's sustainable growth and development."

The challenge, says Takahiro Tsuda, is “how to achieve self-sustained health architecture at the national level,” which will require “strengthening local capacity to produce medical countermeasures, in Africa in particular, and the developing world.”