Global Learning Laboratory for Quality Universal Health Coverage

Welcome to the Community of Practice for the WHO Global Learning Laboratory (GLL) for Quality Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The GLL is deeply rooted in the five interwoven strategies of the Integrated People Centred Health Services Framework—engaging and empowering people and communities; strengthening governance and accountability; reorienting health services; strengthening coordination of care and creating an enabling environment. The GLL recognizes the key role of people-centred health services in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UHC.

The GLL highlights the need to focus care on the needs and preferences of people. To this end, the GLL aims to create a safe space to share lessons, experiences and ideas; challenge those ideas and spark innovation on quality within the content of UHC. The GLL is organized around three areas. First, national quality policy and strategy (NQPS) in order to drive quality across all levels of the health ...

Tell the real story of universal health coverage

UHC2030 is asking for contributions to a multi-stakeholder review called 'The State of UHC Commitment'. As part of this monitoring, UHC2030 would like to tell the stories of people in your country.

Telling people’s stories can help governments and people around the world understand what UHC can mean to people. We are asking you to submit a story because we believe you have a story to tell about a positive and/or negative experience with accessing health care, with the quality of the care you got, or with paying for your care.

Submit your story here before 31 October 2021

 

How do I create my story? Click here for instructions

Health For All Advocacy Toolkit

The Health for All Advocacy Toolkit provides national-level civil society organizations (CSOs) and health networks with the necessary resources to kick-start advocacy initiatives on universal health coverage (UHC). It offers advocates a central reference point—a ‘one-stop shop’ for key information and tools to advocate for UHC, hold policy-makers accountable for their commitments, and build a broad social movement within civil society to support health for all.

The Health for All Advocacy Toolkit has been developed to build capacity, inspire and mobilize civil society in support of the global movement for UHC. It is based on the understanding that health is a human right, and our combined efforts are needed to ensure that the UHC conversation spans before, within, and beyond health system walls to reflect the realities of people and communities.

This toolkit introduces primary UHC concepts and describes some of the many roles civil society plays—not only ...

An assertive, practical, and substantive agenda to catalyse meaningful change

The Lancet Global Health Commission on financing primary health care combines a shared vision with practical guidance on how to align health financing with overall reform strategies that place primary care service delivery at the core. The Commission reinforces key messages that WHO has put forward on health financing reforms to enable progress towards universal health coverage. It then extends these by application to primary care as a critical service delivery element for the progressive realisation of UHC.

WHO's guidance on health financing is crystallised into a framework for regular country assessment to inform policy dialogue. The alignment of the Commission with this guidance is clear, as reflected in the table. While the decision to limit the operational definition of primary health care to service delivery platforms was made for the purposes of the Commission, certain key financing issues merit further attention. We point to these towards the end ...

Health system performance assessment

Voice, agency, empowerment - handbook on social participation for universal health coverage

Social participation is an important means for governments to develop responsive health policies and programmes, which are more likely to be implemented by a broad stakeholder group. It is at the heart of the inclusive governance needed for countries to stake their individual paths towards Universal Health Coverage while ensuring that no one is left behind.

As simple as it may seem in theory, it is a complex undertaking in practice, one which policy-makers struggle with. The Handbook on Social Participation for UHC is thus designed to provide practical guidance, anchored in conceptual clarifications, on strengthening meaningful government engagement with the population, communities, and civil society for national health policy-making. It draws on best practices and lessons learned to support government institutions in setting up, fine-tuning, improving, and institutionalizing new or existing participatory health governance mechanisms.

The handbook follows through the different tasks which policy-makers must reflect on and undertake ...

UN General Assembly Third annual ministerial meeting on Universal Health Coverage: investing in health systems strengthening through a primary health care-oriented approach

The UN General Assembly is the main policy-making organ of the Organization. Comprising all Member States, it provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter of the United Nations.

This year’s discussions will focus on addressing the various challenges the world faces, including the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges call for global action, and the General Assembly is a critical opportunity for all to come together and chart a course for the future.

As we look to strengthen health systems in the wake of COVID-19, re-orientation of resources toward primary health care and essential public health functions will be critical for the achievement of UHC and the health-related SDGs.

This event, hosted within the UN General Assembly, is organized by the Co-chairs of the Group of Friends of UHC and Global Health (Georgia, Japan, Thailand), WHO, UHC2030, IFRC, UN Foundation ...

Civil society feedback on the Zero Draft of the 2023 Political Declaration on UHC

The 2023 UN High-Level (HLM) Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) provides countries and all stakeholders with the opportunity to not just recommit to UHC but take concrete actions toward building resilient and equitable health systems. While some progress has been made since the 2019 HLM on UHC that resulted in a comprehensive Political Declaration, more than half of the world’s population still lacks access to essential health services. The situation was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the UHC2030 Co-Chairs recently stated in their reflection on the UHC Political Declaration 2023 Zero Draft, Member States must show political leadership and “move from commitment to action”. Following the release of the zero draft of the political declaration, the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) launched a survey to collect feedback from civil society to identify priorities for strengthening the zero draft, and ultimately, the Political Declaration. Over the span ...

Universal health coverage is a matter of equity, rights, and justice

The Coalition of Partnerships for Universal Health Coverage and Global Health calls on all countries to urgently reinvigorate progress towards health for all.

At the High Level Political Forum in July and the three UN High-level meetings on health, upcoming in September, 2023, all countries must recognise that progress in providing tuberculosis care, strengthening pandemic preparedness, and delivering the human right to health through universal health coverage are interrelated goals, requiring a concerted focus on the most vulnerable and marginalised populations.

International conference celebrating the 45th anniversary of Alma-Ata and 5th anniversary of Astana declarations

On 23 October WHO/Europe, together with UNICEF and the Government of Kazakhstan, is co-hosting an international conference to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Alma-Ata and 5th anniversary of Astana declarations on primary health care. The conference "Primary health care policy and practice: implementing for better results" will be an official side event of the 73rd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan, in October 2023.

The Conference will:

• take stock of progress implementing the commitments in the Declaration of Astana on primary health care since 2018, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and demonstrate concrete results;
• shift focus from concepts to action by identifying implementation success factors based on country experiences; and
• identify policies and practices to future-proof primary health-care transformation for moving towards universal health coverage, for greater resilience in the face of emergencies, and better health and well-being. 

Structure ...

Primary health care measurement framework and indicators: monitoring health systems through a primary health care lens

To continuously strengthen PHC, countries must be able to assess how decisions, actions and investments are addressing the broader determinants of health while improving service coverage, financial risk protection, and ultimately the health of individuals and populations. As countries strive to reorient their health systems around the principles of PHC, this document responds to Member States’ request in resolution WHA72.2 on primary health care for guidance to assess, track and monitor PHC performance to accelerate progress towards UHC and the health-related SDGs. The indicators and monitoring and evaluation conceptual framework presented in this document are based on and support the 14 levers of the Operational framework for primary health care. The indicators and framework have undergone technical review and multiple stages of consultation with countries, civil society, and leading PHC academics and experts.

This document aligns with and advances WHO’s work in monitoring UHC and the SDGs, including ...

World leaders commit to redouble efforts towards universal health coverage by 2030

Today, 21 September 2023, at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly High-Level Meeting, world leaders have approved a new Political Declaration on “Universal Health Coverage (UHC): expanding our ambition for health and well-being in a post-COVID world”.  

The declaration is hailed as a vital catalyst for the international community to take big and bold actions and mobilize the necessary political commitments and financial investments to attain the UHC target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

The UHC target measures the ability of countries to ensure that everyone receives the health care they need, when and where they need it, without facing financial hardship. It covers the full continuum of key services from health promotion to prevention, protection, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care. Alarmingly, global progress towards UHC has been largely stagnating since 2015, before stalling in 2019.

The urgency of the declaration is evident in the staggering statistics ...