About > Health 8 Agencies

The Health Eight (H8) refers to leaders of the eight global international health agencies: WHO, World Bank, GAVI, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that meet on an informal biannual basis to discuss challenges to scaling up health services and improving health-related MDG outcomes, particularly for the poor.

The first informal H8 Agency Meeting was held in July 2007 in New York (pdf). At the meeting leaders from the H8 agencies agreed to:

  • Stimulate a global collective sense of urgency for reaching the health related MDG's;
  • Modify institutional ways of doing business (coordination and teamwork)
  • Foster a more systematic and robust approach to knowledge management and learning;
  • Recognize the important opportunity presented by the renewed interest in health systems; and
  • Recognize that the role of civil society and the private sector will be critical for success.


(Left-right) World Bank Health, Nutrition and Population Vice President Joy Phumaphi; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Global Health President Tadataka Yamada; UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid; The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine; UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman; GAVI Alliance Executive Secretary Julian Lob-Levyt; WHO Director-General Margaret Chan; and UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Michel Sidibe attend the first Informal Meeting of Global Health Leaders, at UNICEF House

The Second informal H8 Agency Meeting was held on in January 2008 in Geneva. At the meeting leaders from the H8 agencies agreed to:

  • Focus on results and keep health related MDGs high on agenda;
  • Collaborate on key events;
  • Ensure that country compacts are truly owned by countries and fully inclusive of stakeholders;
  • Place importance in M&E in the context of the results focus; and
  • Promote linkages (between MDGs, between strategies for Africa, south-south cooperation, etc.).
The Third informal H8 Agency Meeting is planned for July 2008 in Washington, DC.

For more information, please click on the links below.
World Bank, 'Big 8' Health Leaders Agree on Strategy to Help Poor Nations
Outcomes of July 2007 Meeting of Global Health Leaders

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