Virtual, 5 April 2023 – UNITE, the parliamentarians network for global health committed to the promotion of efficient and sustainable policies for improved health systems, held a virtual parliamentary information session on the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Action Agenda.
Building on the 2019 Political Declaration on UHC and ahead of UN UHC High-Level Meetings, the main objective of this event, was to exchange best practices in terms of political advocacy and legislative work in order to make UHC a reality at national level, and to encourage parliamentarians to mobilize their governments towards that endeavor.
Ms. Laeticia Bosio, Program Manager and member of the UHC2030 Core Team of the World Health Organization (WHO), presented the UHC Action Agenda and opportunities to engage in the Multistakeholder Hearing and UN High-Level Meetings (UN HLM) in September 2023.
PAM was represented by Hon. Al Mulla (UAE), who emphasized the need to strengthen the efforts and commitments of parliamentarians in order to implement the UHC agenda. She notably recalled that half of the world’s population does not have access to adequate health care. She noted existing disparities in the PAM region with latest studies showing that the UHC service coverage index was at about 70 in the MENA region, meaning that there is still an important part of the population who doesn’t have access to the “quality health services they need, when and where they need them, including during emergencies, without risk of financial hardship.”
Another priority of UNITE is to anticipate future difficulties, through pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Hon. Al Mulla notably pointed out that COVID-19 pandemic also had a dreadful impact on tuberculosis, which is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide and the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19 (above HIV/AIDS). Indeed, in the MENA region, the prevalence of latent TB is about 40% of the population in 2021.
In November 2021, PAM signed an MoU with UNITE and will continue to engage with all stakeholders involved on Global Health. Also, PAM is convinced that the UHC must target vulnerable populations in priority, for example, migrant populations and women in rural areas. This later topic will be addressed during the second edition of the PAM Women Parliamentary Forum, which will take place later this year.//