UN High-Level Meeting: Time to Act on Universal Health Coverage

Abstract

We are restless for change. UHC2030 is a multi-stakeholder platform that aims to strengthen the global movement for universal health coverage (UHC), and we are calling for urgent action. As stakeholders from governments, civil society, the private sector, development partners, academia, and the media, we are pushing for all countries to implement UHC as fast as possible. When all 193 member states of the UN agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, they set out an ambitious agenda for a safer, fairer, and healthier world by 2030. UHC is a target of SDG 3, but UHC is not only about health; it has far-reaching effects across economies and societies in general.1 On Sept 23, 2019, a UN high-level meeting will take place, with the theme of UHC: Moving Together to Build a Healthier World. This meeting is the last chance before 2023, the midpoint of the SDGs, to mobilise the highest political support to bring the health agenda under the umbrella of UHC, and to sustain harmonised health investments. The UN High-Level Meeting must be truly transformative, as called for by civil society.2 UHC2030 has developed a set of key asks (panel) from the UHC movement3 through a broad consultative process. We propose an agenda for the UN HighLevel Meeting political declaration, with milestones for achieving UHC by 2030. Across these recommendations, we urge political leaders to recommit to gender equality, redress gender power dynamics, and uphold women’s and girls’ rights, all of which are foundational principles for UHC. UHC2030 and the global movement for UHC call on heads of state to lead, legislate, invest in, and collaborate with all of society