Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Two years ago, Member States adopted WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work.
The first of its three goals is to see 1 billion more people benefiting from universal health coverage by 2023.
Our aim is to help countries build resilient health systems built on robust primary health care.
So how are we doing?
The 2019 UHC Global Monitoring Report showed that, since 2000, average levels of service coverage have been improving.
On current trends, we project that an additional 290 million people will have access to high-quality health services, without financial hardship by 2023.
But that leaves a shortfall of 710 million against our target to see 1 billion more people benefiting from universal health coverage.
The world is far behind, and there has been relatively little change in some key areas.
Progress on noncommunicable diseases is stalling, particularly in low-income countries.
There are major gaps in access to essential medicines and other health products such as antibiotics, insulin and medicines for pain and palliative care.
Antimicrobial resistance is reversing the hard-won progress we have made.
And the threat of catastrophic out-of-pocket health expenditures disproportionately affects the poor.
As you know, the pandemic has shown that many health systems are not adequately equipped or organized to protect the health of their populations.
This is the result of years of disinvestment or underinvestment.
Beyond the disease and death caused directly by COVID-19, the pandemic has severely disrupted the provision of many essential health services.
WHO’s second pulse survey shows a majority of countries surveyed are experiencing disruptions to at least 25% of their services.
However, there are some signs of recovery. The number of countries reporting disruptions to 75% or more of services has decreased from 24% to 8 %, in six months.
Although the pandemic has been a setback in our collective efforts to progress towards universal health coverage, it has also shown why it is so important, and why we must pursue it with even more determination.
And we are living in a time of unprecedented political support for universal health coverage.
At the United Nations General Assembly in 2019, world leaders came together to adopt the high-level political declaration on UHC.
At the same Assembly, WHO and 11 multilateral partners launched the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-Being for All, to improve collaboration in support of countries to progress towards universal health coverage and the other health-related SDG targets.
Later the same year, legislators from many countries at the Inter-Parliamentary Union Congress adopted a resolution on universal health coverage, pledging to leverage the power of parliaments to translate political commitment into the legislation and regulations to make UHC a reality.
Building on those commitments and the lessons learned from COVID-19, WHO remains focused on working with all Member States to strengthen primary health care, increase equitable access to services, reduce out-of-pocket spending and drive progress towards UHC.
I thank you.