Event summary: Launch of UHC2030’s Strategic Narrative to Drive Advocacy and Action on Gender-Responsive Health Systems for UHC

The event, titled “Advancing gender-responsive health systems for UHC: Launch of UHC2030’s strategic narrative to drive advocacy and action”, aimed to provide advocacy messages and targeted actions from the new narrative to influence decision-makers, close the gap between commitments and implementation, and ensure gender equality is embedded as a cross-cutting attribute of health system strengthening for progress towards universal health coverage (UHC). 

Moderator Emilia Caro, Board Chair of Women in Global Health, welcomed participants and highlighted UHC as critical for building inclusive health systems that leave no one behind. She described UHC2030’s new strategic narrative as a shared compass meant to translate values into practice and emphasized that equity must be realized through action—laws, budgets and lived realities—not theoretical commitments.

Dr. Magda Robalo, co-chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, President and co-founder of The Institute for Global Health and Development, and Interim Executive Director of Women in Global Health, provided the keynote address. Highlighting gender inequality as a core barrier to UHC, she outlined persistent inequities: women bear higher out-of-pocket expenses, are underrepresented in leadership, and are often unpaid or underpaid in care roles. Women and girls also continue to die of preventable causes due to lack of essential health services.

She presented the new strategic narrative as a tool for action, highlighting three goals:

1. Equipping advocates with shared language and clear messages
2. Driving political commitment and accountability
3. Bridging global commitments with national-level implementation

She also emphasized intersectionality and the role of civil society and grassroots voices in driving systems change.

The UHC2030 Secretariat followed with an interactive segment, during which participants were invited to share experiences and perceptions of UHC via an interactive poll. This created space to reflect on how UHC is experienced differently across contexts, emphasizing the need for financial protection and grounded, inclusive approaches. The Secretariat then invited participants to continue the conversation on their social media platforms by sharing their stories using the #HealthCostsHurt hashtag. 

This was followed by a presentation of the key advocacy messages of the strategic narrative, emphasizing targeted actions where focused advocacy can shift momentum and drive progress in priority areas:

1. Ensure that women are equally well represented in health and political leadership and that diverse voices and perspectives are elevated and equitably included in UHC decision-making processes at all levels.
2. Provide a comprehensive package of essential health services that ensures the health needs of all—including the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls—are met throughout their life course.
3. Strengthen the health and care workforce to deliver quality, gender-responsive health services, by addressing gender inequality, creating safe, decent and equal work conditions, and remuneration for women who constitute the majority of formal and informal health and care workers. This includes ensuring equal pay for equal work of equal value.
4. Build inclusive and comprehensive information systems with sex disaggregated and gender related disaggregated data to inform health decision-making at all levels and to monitor health inequities.
5. Guarantee the availability, accessibility, affordability, safety, effectiveness, quality and rational use of essential medicines and health products by including a focus on sex and gender in research and guidelines, and on gender-related barriers and health needs in supply chains and monitoring.
6. Allocate more resources efficiently and equitably and prioritize investment opportunities that advance gender-responsive health systems by protecting against financial hardship (including that related to gender inequalities), eliminating discrimination, and removing gender barriers to ensure access to affordable quality health services for all.

This presentation was followed by a panel discussion featuring diverse voices working across diplomacy, advocacy, youth leadership, and frontline health systems. Arlene B. Tickner, Colombia’s Ambassador for Gender and Feminist Global Policy, called for feminist diplomacy and decolonizing global health, and noting that conventional frameworks often ignore the structural root causes of inequity. Ruth Ngechu, Global Advocacy Director at Pathfinder International and Board Member of Women in Global Health, emphasized the importance of gender-responsive budgeting, community inclusion, and moving from commitments to sustained reform.

Harjyot Khosa, Regional Director at IPPF South Asia, advocated for the full integration of sexual and reproductive health and rights in health systems, and for linking reproductive and mental health needs, especially for marginalized groups in South Asia. David Martínez González, Youth and LGBTQIA+ advocate with IFMSA, then emphasized youth as essential partners in reform and urged intersectional approaches that center identity, inclusion and lived experience.

Maud Mwakasungula, Vice Chair of NCD Alliance in Malawi and leader of the Women’s Coalition Against Cancer in Malawi, shared her personal journey as a cancer survivor and deplored the failings of current systems, advocating for grassroots accountability and better NCD coverage in UHC reform.

Speakers concluded with a shared message: this new Strategic Narrative for Gender-Responsive Health Systems for UHC is not just another publication—it is a vital tool for advocacy, transformation and accountability. Participants were urged to use it within their networks and platforms to influence decisions, embed gender equity into policy and ensure UHC truly leaves no one behind.

Read the narrative here. 

Watch the event recording below.