Eleven conservative countries have declared that they will not support the adoption of the political declarations on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPPR), universal health coverage (UHC), and tuberculosis (TB) on the United Nations agenda this week. Although the countries did not raise their objections during Monday’s SDG Summit, the […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK CITY – There has been little progress in expanding universal health service coverage (UHC) since the last UN High Level Meeting (HLM) meeting on the issue in 2019, and trends in financial protection are even worsening, with catastrophic out-of-pocket spending increasing when compared to 2015.  The final draft of the political declaration for […] Continue reading ->
Leading global health experts and activists have expressed frustration and disappointment at the draft political declarations on pandemics, universal health coverage (UHC) and tuberculosis that world leaders are expected to adopt at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) next week. Key criticisms of the three declarations are that they offer no advancement on previous international […] Continue reading ->
Three multilateral development banks and the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the launch of an investment platform on Thursday aimed at supporting low and middle-income countries to build their primary healthcare (PHC) services via grants and concessional loans. PHC is widely recognised as the most effective way to improve health and well-being, and the recent […] Continue reading ->
Thirty countries signed a political declaration at an international meeting in Morocco last week calling for the health of refugees and migrants to be included in national health systems and universal health coverage. A total of 50 UN member and observer states attended the talks. The Rabat Declaration, signed on Friday, is the first official […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA – The global will to ensure that COVID-19 is a “never-again” pandemic is dissipating fast, according to many delegates attending the World Health Assembly (WHA) and its plethora of side events – threatening initiatives such as local manufacturing of vaccines. Jeremy Farrar, the newly appointed Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO), reminded […] Continue reading ->
In a strong statement against the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the violence and calling for an immediate halt to Russian attacks on health facilities. Russia and Syria floated a resolution that made no mention of the Russian aggression, and which failed to find any support among […] Continue reading ->
With a political declaration on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on the agenda of the World Health Assembly, we unpack the WHO’s  “Best Buys” that provide countries with tools to address the diseases that are responsible for three-quarters of global deaths Health Policy Watch: The WHO’s “Best Buys” to prevent and control NCDs comprise 90 interventions, which […] Continue reading ->