WHA76 UHC Agenda Item 13.1: Constituency Statement

The non-state actors (NSAs) supporting this constituency statement regarding Agenda Item 13,1 on Universal Health Coverage include: Amref Health Africa, Fondation Botnar, Global Health Council, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, IFMSA, International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth, IntraHealth International, IPPF, IPSF, PATH, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Save the Children, UN Foundation, WaterAid, Women Deliver, Women in Global Health, and World Hepatitis Alliance.

Health is everyone’s human right, and it is the duty of all governments to fulfill this right. Yet inequality for marginalized and disadvantaged groups has increased. To make health for all a reality, governments must:

1. Prioritize primary health care and provide a comprehensive health benefits package so all people have access to quality health services that cover the full spectrum of care, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services. Services must include palliative care and be adolescent-friendly and protect infants, children, adolescents, older people and women in all their diversity across the life course. 
2. Strengthen the health and care workforce by addressing existing inequities within the workforce. Governments must ensure gender equality in health systems leadership and decision-making at all levels, create safe, free from violence and dignified working conditions, close the gender pay gap and recognize and remunerate unpaid and underpaid health and care workers, including community health workers.
3. Prioritize health in government spending and implement comprehensive and equitable health financing policies that reach marginalized communities. Health financing policies should both expand quality health coverage and improve affordability.
4. Strengthen health data governance by developing and endorsing a global framework that articulates common regulatory standards, underpinned by equity and rights based principles, to inform national legislation and govern health data sharing across countries. This would support more equitable and responsible health data management, safeguard individual rights, and improve public trust in health data systems.
5. Disaggregate, analyze and securely use health data across gender, age, income, race, ethnicity, migratory status, disability, sexual and gender diversity, and geographic location, etc. to identify and address health needs, especially of left-behind groups.
6. Institutionalize and fund social participation mechanisms, especially for civil society, to design, implement and monitor gender-transformative UHC programs, policies and frameworks that focus on the needs of vulnerable populations.
7. Make health systems more equitable and resilient and strengthen primary care by increasing investment in health capacities and adopting the diagnostics resolution. 

These actions will build trust among communities, reduce poverty and promote equity, social cohesion and resilience, in line with the 2030 pledge to leave no one behind.