Universal Health Coverage Day 2023

It is time to get progress towards health for all back on track!

The United Nations High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, held on 21 September 2023, reaffirmed that healthy people are the foundation of healthy societies and economies, and that UHC is central to achieving all of the Sustainable Development Goals.

And yet:

• Half of the world’s population does not have access to essential health services.
• An estimated 2 billion people face financial hardship due to out-of-pocket health expenses, including 344 million people living in extreme poverty.
• Since the launch of the SDGs in 2015 – even before the COVID-19 pandemic – the expansion of health service coverage had stalled and financial protection had deteriorated.

Now more than ever, we need your voice to tell our leaders to keep their commitments to universal health coverage.

It’s time for action.

Publications

2023 Political Declaration on UHC: CSEM comprehensive analysis and briefing note

As part of the High-level Meeting (HLM) on Universal Heath Coverage (UHC) follow-up, the CSEM is pleased to share advocacy tools related to the outcomes of the 2023 Political Declaration on UHC to empower CSOs in driving the implementation of the HLM commitments in countries and hold governments accountable. Learn more. 

Tracking universal health coverage: 2023 Global Monitoring Report (GMR)

To track progress on UHC implementation, the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) is published bi-annually by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank. 

The GMR tracks two SDG UHC indicators: 8.1, which captures the service coverage dimension of UHC (measured using the Service Coverage Index (SCI)); and 8.2, which captures the population exposed to financial hardship due to OOP payments made when using health services (measured by catastrophic and impoverishing health spending). The 2023 GMR shows a disturbing trend of stagnation in the progress towards UHC with nearly 4.5 billion people not covered by essential health services and 2 billion people suffering financial hardship due to out-ofpocket health expenditure. You can access the full report here.

In response to the GMR, the CSEM published a Civil Society Commentary to highlight civil society perspectives on progress toward UHC and call to action for governments.The Civil Society Commentary is available here.

Country Profiles – UHC Data Portal

UHC2030 is uopdating  the UHC Data Portal to add new country profiles (progress dashboard) based on the State of UHC Commitment review in 2021 and 2022, which provides data sets and data visualization on health systems and the state of UHC commitment in 139 countries. stay tuned!

Civil Society Perspectives on Reaching Universal Health Coverage

The CSEM led 37 civil society consultations across 43 countries as part of the multi-stakeholder State of the UHC Commitment Review. The Review is a political, country-focused and action-oriented tool that complements the more technical and global UHC monitoring report. The consultations captured stories, lived experiences, and perspectives of civil society and communities that show the real progress made toward UHC implementation at the country level. Learn more. 

Toward a WHA Resolution on social participation

Under the leadership of Thailand and Slovenia, a Core Group of countries is pursuing a resolution on institutionalizing social participation for health and well-being at the WHO Executive Board (EB154) and the World Health Assembly (WHA77). Institutionalizing social participation is crucial for ensuring that health policies and services are responsive to community needs and leaving no one behind. The CSEM has developed an advocacy brief to guide civil society actions towards building support for the WHA resolution on social participation. The brief provides background information, key advocacy asks and identifies milestones in the lead up to the WHA. Download the Advocacy Brief here.