A Promise Forgotten? Putting Universal Back into Health Coverage

The landscape of global health has witnessed notable setbacks against years of global progress.

This has largely been attributed to a ‘perfect storm’ of compounding and often intersection global challenges: the growing numbers and length of conflicts, severity and far-reaching impacts of climate change, and the current and growing risks of pandemics.

These “three Cs” exacerbate existing inequities: rendering marginalized women, children and adolescents, more marginalized and vulnerable to potential risk; and severely impacting their access to life-saving immunization and their socio-economic development. All of which are symptoms of environments where systems are fragile, under resourced, and inequitable.

Even where there has been progress, it has not been distributed equally within and between regions, countries, communities, and households. Where a child, an adolescent and a woman live, should not determine whether they just survive or have a chance to thrive. Equally, it is not enough to have services available, we must ensure quality essential services that are accessible and affordable.

This plenary will set the tone and be a rallying call to all participants to centralize populations facing greatest inequities in health access and social, economic and health outcomes. As we have just concluded the UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage , let us put the universal – the equity – back into health coverage.