Norway’s message focused on continued UN reform,
health systems strengthening, the common responsibility to ensure the health of
victims of crises, upholding sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well
as the need for strategic support for universal health coverage. “Rather than
delivering health care services, the international community must re-orient
towards policy support; longer-term financing with an emphasis on domestic
resource mobilization and priority setting; and ensuring availability of
affordable and effective medicines and diagnostics”, said Ambassador Brattskar.
The meeting was chaired by the Swiss Ambassador to the United Nations, Valentin Zellweger. Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed, Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom and Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibé gave opening remarks.
“The Secretary-General and I place great emphasis on prevention. Investing in prevention to keep people healthy will bring the largest dividend. To do that means addressing social determinants with a myriad of stakeholders in politics, education, trade, civil society, the investor community and beyond.” - Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations
“Achieving the SDGs is about speed, scale and quality: are we moving fast enough; are our efforts and investments ambitious enough; and are we delivering quality health services for all? But above all, Agenda 2030 is a political document. Universal health coverage is a political choice. As technical agencies, we must strengthen our ability to play political roles.” - Tedros Adhanom, Director-General, WHO
“Health can be a major entry point for implementing UN reform by simplifying and streamlining the health architecture through one inclusive country platform, one implementation plan, and one data hub for planning, monitoring and accountability. This will help the UN system to be more focused, more aligned and more effective in its support to countries.” - Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, UNAIDS
Participants highlighted the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the targeted efforts to fight communicable diseases and improve maternal and child health. Despite the great achievements, there is still an unfinished agenda related to the MDGs.
At the same time, it was acknowledged that the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals require a more integrated and cross-sectoral way of working. This is in particular the case when facing new health challenges, such as non-communicable diseases. These are now a major component of the global burden of disease and cannot be handled by the health sector alone. Factors such as environment and pollution must also be addressed, along with food and beverage production and consumption. The need to link human rights and health in order to reach the most vulnerable and marginalized was also expressed.
Several participants also noted the importance of the ongoing reform efforts to enable the United Nations to work more efficiently at country level as One UN. This was an important point in Ambassador Brattskar’s statement, which also highlighted health systems strengthening, a common responsibility to ensure the health of victims of crises, strategic support for Universal Health Coverage and upholding sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).