Lessons from the Field Count more than Ever: The New Era of Global Health

For many years, Japan has been silent on the achievements of Japan’s Overseas Development Assistance program including the health improvement of foreign countries. Japan’s contribution to global health communities through G8 process including Hashimoto Initiative is steadfast. On the other hand, in the field activity level, experts involved in ODA have not disclosed their achievements. However, the article by Wada et al., which describes the contents of TEN MR (Minimum Requirement), shed light on Japan’s silent ODA community by disclosing Japan’s achievements in global health by drawing lessons that may be applicable to other countries. Our future challenge in the global health will be how to synthesize actions that reflect the lessons learnt from the field and which show scientific evidence using established methods.