Reimagining Universal Health Coverage to Leave No One Behind

1.3 billion people – or 16% of the global population – experience a significant disability. Although persons with disabilities have the same right to the highest attainable standard of health as anyone else, they continue to die 10-20 years earlier and have poorer health than others. These inequalities exist in every part of the world but are exacerbated in low- and middle-income countries and for people who experience additional discrimination due to their gender or origin etc. A key contributor to health inequities for persons with disabilities is the lack of access to assistive technology. Failure to deliver assistive technology that is embedded in quality health care is leading to poorer health outcomes and (social and economic) exclusion.

Recent reports from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the Missing Billion Initiative are very clear: the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is not attainable if we do not urgently bridge the health gap experienced by persons with disabilities and provide access to assistive technology to all those who need it.

In this interactive session, we invite global health actors to learn about this urgent issue and explore together concrete actions that make health systems more inclusive. Voices from persons with disabilities and assistive technology users will be at the center. As evidence of inclusive health in practice, we will showcase progressive health strategies carried out at national level. We will also discuss how community-based approaches to inclusive health and stronger collaboration of global health actors can accelerate the progress to UHC.