MOBILIZING GLOBAL SOLIDARITY FOR UHC
Dear Colleagues,
Here is a discussion for our consideration and action at this time.
As the world prepares for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York in September 2023, it is important for us to prepare ourselves ideologically for this event. The theme for the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC is Universal Health Coverage: expanding our ambition for health and well-being in a post-COVID world.
We need to remind ourselves of the basics; namely, that health of the people is a precondition for productive lives. The right to life is also a right to health and a right to responsive health systems. The quality of life varies between regions and within countries; where in some cases there is unacceptable poverty, and a lack of social justice and equity. This is in a world that is connected, interdependent, and globalized with knowledge and resources to achieve UHC but sadly lacks the will and organizational capacity needed to expand and achieve our ambition enshrined in the SDGs. Our response to the existential threat of Climate change is also constrained by our inability to mobilize for collective action.
There are admirable achievements such as the negotiation of the SDGs, rolling out Global Health Initiatives such as GAVI and the Global Fund for AIDs, TB, and Malaria, and UN Agencies like WHO, and UNICEF. The ability of these agencies to achieve UHC that leaves no one behind cannot be realized until the people themselves are reached and engaged through PHC is owned and driven by the communities themselves and where the people participate as a duty and a right using the currently available resources.