UN high-level meeting: time to act on universal health coverage

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 from the UHC movement³ through a broad consultative process. We propose an agenda for the UN High-Level 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.

Key asks from the universal health coverage movement

• Ask 1: ensure political leadership beyond health; commit to achieve universal health coverage for healthy lives and wellbeing for all at all stages, as a social contract
• Ask 2: leave no one behind; pursue equity in access to quality health services with financial protection
• Ask 3: regulate and legislate; create a strong, enabling regulatory and legal environment responsive to people’s needs
• Ask 4: uphold quality of care; build quality health systems that people and communities trust
• Ask 5: invest more, invest better; sustain public financing and harmonise health investments
• Ask 6: move together; establish multi-stakeholder mechanisms for engaging the whole of society for a healthier world