STATEMENT
79th World Health Assembly
18 - 23 May 2026
Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services
Item 12.6 Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development og 12.10 Harmonization of regulatory approaches, governance and standards for data, digital health and artificial intelligence in the health sector.
Norway’s National Statement.
Thank you chair.
Norway is concerned by lack of progress on SDG3 and more specifically UHC, PHC, protection from out-of-pocket expenditure and lack of progress on coverage of basic services like vaccination and reproductive, maternal and child health services.
Norway is however encouraged by significant progress in health information systems in the past 6 years and encourages WHO to support countries to continue to enhance capacity, respond to reduction in household surveys (DHS) and to responsibly and ethically utilize AI for advances in data analysis and timely response.
Norway supports WHO’s consolidated approach to digital health, data governance and AI. We emphasize the need for globally aligned regulations in this field, starting with the Nomeclature regulation (1967) and the WHO-FIC code systems promoting collection of global data and common digital foundations. Norway supports interoperability, ethical safeguards and equity as core pillars of the upcoming 2028–2033 global digital health strategy.
Thank you.