At past G8 summits, we’ve seen a number of landmark commitments on health – from treating and preventing infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS to improving health systems to eradicating Polio. In fact, it was at the G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan (the last time Japan hosted the G8) that the initial seeds were sown for the Global Fund. The Global Fund has now saved more than 2 million lives by providing treatment and prevention for AIDS, TB and Malaria.

But eight years after the Global Fund’s inception, the fight against these infectious diseases, and delivering essential health services more generally, is being severely hampered by weak health systems and a critical shortage of health professionals. With this in mind, we’re asking the G8 to deliver a strategy for improving overall health conditions while continuing to vigorously fight infectious diseases. Here are ONE’s three top-line health asks:

1. Develop a time-bound action plan for delivering $100 billion for health: At the 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, non-US G8 members promised to provide $30 billion for AIDS, TB, malaria and health systems in order to match the United States’ $30 billion, five-year AIDS, TB and malaria program. That program, known as PEPFAR, will now be authorized at $50 billion over five years. Non-US G8 donors should build on the original spirit of the Heiligendamm commitment by providing a $50 billion match over the same five-year period, and improving the quality of these investments over the same time frame.

By the end of the Japanese G8 presidency, the G8 should provide a donor-by-donor timetable for delivering on this health commitment.

2. Set a numeric target for filling Africa’s critical shortage of health workers: G8 leaders should agree to funding an increase of at least 1.5 million additional health workers in Africa by 2015, with an interim target of at least 600,000 additional health workers by 2012.

According to the WHO, meeting major health-related MDGs, such as universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, is “very unlikely” unless countries reach a minimum threshold of 2.3 doctors, nurses, and midwives per 1,000 population. In Sub Saharan Africa, this ratio translates to roughly 1.5 million additional health workers, including more than 800,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives.

3. Coordinate new and existing donor resources for health systems and health workers around national health sector plans. The G8 should agree to support the development of, and effective coordination of aid around, national health sector strategies. Assistance should be immediately scale-up in countries that already have rigorous national plans and a process should be developed to ensure all poor countries have the resources to complete donor-ready health sector investment plans.

-Ben Hubbard