Tokyo has allegedly agreed to work jointly with the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) to create a new body of the U.N. public health agency that will promote universal health coverage in developing countries, Japanese Foreign Ministry sources told Kyodo News Thursday.

“Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed on setting up the entity in Japan during phone talks in May, with its launch likely to be timed around the summit meeting of the Group of Seven nations in Hiroshima, western Japan, according to the sources,” the Japanese news agency reported on August 11.

Kyodo News referred to an upcoming summit of Group of Seven (G7) member states, which is tentatively scheduled to take place in Hiroshima, Japan, in May 2023. The G7 is an inter-governmental political forum consisting of the globe’s top economies. It counts Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S. among its members.

Kyodo News relayed additional information from its unidentified Japanese foreign ministry sources on Thursday concerning the alleged plan by Tokyo and the W.H.O. to “focus on strengthening health care systems” in poorer nations, writing:

Japan is expected to bolster its presence by providing knowhow on social security for the new organization, which will be under the umbrella of the WHO and tasked to promote universal health coverage, the sources said.

In 2012, the WHO endorsed a resolution for universal health coverage as at least half of the world’s population lack access to basic health care.

The new organization will also raise awareness of universal health coverage, and build a framework to prevent the spread of infectious diseases including the coronavirus.

The W.H.O. previously led an effort to promote universal health coverage in its “Eastern Mediterranean” region, which includes 21 W.H.O. member states and expands beyond the immediate vicinity of the sea.

The agency detailed some of the initiatives it undertook to support the initiative in 2017, writing:

Technical cooperation with Egypt contributed to the enactment of a historic comprehensive social health insurance law, ensuring more public money for health. Support was also provided to Kuwait to review its health financing system and integrate a health financing strategy into the country’s national strategic health plan.

Special support was provided to the Islamic Republic of Iran and Sudan to strengthen the strategic purchasing function of their health insurance organizations. Particular attention was given to the development of benefit packages for universal health coverage. […]

Joint efforts with the Federal Ministry of Health of Sudan and other development partners culminated in the endorsement of a funding proposal to support governance reforms in the National Health Insurance Fund. Collaboration continued with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to combat corruption in the health system.

The W.H.O. said it had additionally partnered with “GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Global Fund” to boost “immunization coverage” in Sudan and “better control […] HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria.”

GAVI, officially known as “Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance,” promotes immunization uptake in developing countries. The organization identifies itself as a “public-private” global health partnership.

“Gavi’s impact draws on the strengths of its core partners, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and plays a critical role in strengthening primary health care (PHC), bringing us closer to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), ensuring that no one is left behind,” the organization states on its website.

The United Nations established its “Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Universal Health Coverage (UHC)” in 2015 “based on the principle that all individuals and communities should have access to quality essential health services without suffering financial hardship.”