Sherpas are an ethnic group of people from eastern Nepal, whose life in the Himalayas gives them knowledge and endurance in the hostile, high altitude conditions. Arguably the most famous Sherpa in world history was Tenzing Norgay, who in 1953 accompanied mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary on the first ever successful climb of Mt Everest.

Ok, that was a good chat about mountain climbing... let's completely change the subject.

Since Hillary and Norgay's climb, the word sherpa has become linked with the idea of a skilled guide who helps to clear the way for great achievement. And while I'm not expecting any Himalayan mountaineers to be present at the G7 meeting of key world leaders in Germany this June, another group of people who are referred to as sherpas are doing some important set-up work this week for the G7.

Ahead of the annual G7 meetings (between the leaders of Germany, France, Japan, the US, the UK, Canada, Italy, and the EU), official representatives of the national leaders, known as sherpas, meet to decide the agenda of the G7 meeting, and identify areas for negotiation. This helps to save time at the G7 meeting itself, and allows a clearer focus.

As you can see, if you want the G7 leaders to be talking about an issue this June in Germany, you need to make sure the sherpas who are meeting this week have it in the front of their minds. Systems like this aren't the sort of stuff that newspapers cover in much detail, but it's super crucial to understand if we want to create change on important issues in 2015. 

Accordingly, 30 NGOs from around the world are making noise this week to get the sherpas talking about poverty, development, and how the G7 countries can work together to make the most of the exceptional opportunity for progress in 2015. Have a read of their letter below!

A call to action for the G7: Investing in healthy outcomes

We call on G7 leaders to take concrete action to:

1. Achieve universal access through strong health systems

• Agree a G7 initiative to support the rebuilding of strong and resilient health systems especially those ravaged by the ongoing Ebola crisis.

2. Stop preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths

• Renew the Muskoka Initiative

• Support implementation of ENAP (Every Newborn: An Action Plan to end preventable deaths)

3.End the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and accelerating collaborative responses on neglected and poverty-related diseases

• Support UNAIDS and Stop TB and Roll Back Malaria global plans to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria

• Re-affirm Hokkaido Toyako NTD commitments

4.Invest in global health research and development to combat these diseases.

• Scale up innovative approaches to foster the global health research and development

The G7’s efforts to improve global health rank among its greatest development achievements.  By any measure G7 action has helped make remarkable progress against the greatest global health threats of our time.  2015 is a pivotal year to carry this legacy forward.  The G7’s leadership is needed to reinvigorate efforts to strengthen health care systems, fight infectious diseases, improve maternal and child health, and to ensure the unfinished business of the Millennium Development Goals health-related commitments are not lost in the transition to the Sustainable Development Goals especially where G7 action has contributed to substantial progress.

We applaud Chancellor Merkel for drawing attention to Gavi’s replenishment by designating the conference as the first highlight of the German G7 Presidency.  A fully-funded Gavi working to scale up access to vaccines to protect all children and to strengthen health systems is critical and should look to compliment the G7’s efforts on maternal and child health. To this end, the G7 must renew its support of the Muskoka Initiative to continue the advances on maternal, newborn and child health.

Additionally, the Ebola crisis is a grim reminder of the repercussions of failing to build strong, sustainable and accessible health systems.   Strong health systems are central to achieving sustainable progress on all of the G7’s longstanding health goals. The crisis illustrates how a strategy of relying solely on bilateral and multilateral programmes to meet health system strengthening commitments is insufficient. The G7 must spearhead a plan to support the rebuilding and establishment of strong resilient health systems in countries most affected by the Ebola and other vulnerable and severely resource limited settings.

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We've also got more detail on the four focus areas in the call to action. But I've taken mercy on you and parked it in a separate place. If you're game, check it out here.