Partnership in action at the 2025 UHC High-level Forum
8th December 2025
On 6 December 2025, health and finance leaders gathered in Tokyo for the UHC High-Level Forum 2025, co-hosted by the Government of Japan, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank.
Bringing together health and finance ministers, business leaders, philanthropies, global health agencies and civil society, the UHC High-level Forum marked a defining moment in the global drive towards universal health coverage (UHC)—the commitment to ensure that everyone should have access to quality, essential health services without financial hardship.
The Forum marked the launch of the UHC Knowledge Hub in Tokyo, a global platform co-developed by the Government of Japan, WHO and the World Bank to strengthen countries’ capacity to support health financing reforms.
WHO and the World Bank also released the 2025 Global Monitoring Report, which shows that 4.6 billion people lack access to essential health services and 2.1 billion people face financial hardship due to health expenses. These challenges underscore the need for long-term, coordinated reforms that help low- and middle-income countries build more resilient and equitable health systems.
UHC2030 contributed to the Forum by bringing different voices in the conversation and emphasizing the imperative of collaboration across diverse stakeholders, focusing on the right to health and equitable outcomes which can only be achieved if public policies respond to the needs of people. UHC2030's Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) emphasized in a statement that UHC depends on inclusive governance and accountability, which requires meaningful civil society and community engagement at all levels.
Japan’s leadership in strengthening collaboration between health and finance
The Forum marked growing consensus that achieving UHC requires collaboration between ministries of finance and health, moving away from reliance on unpredictable external funding and toward a long-term, fiscally grounded approach. Japan has long promoted finance-health collaboration, convening the first-ever Joint Finance and Health Ministerial Session in 2019 during its G20 presidency and reinforcing this partnership during its G7 Presidency in 2023. The establishment of the Hub and the convening of the Forum mark a new milestone in strengthening finance-health collaboration
Turning commitments into country-led action
The Forum brought together ministers of health and finance from 24 countries, alongside representatives from civil society, the private sector, and international partners. Discussions underscored the importance of country-led, financially grounded strategies to ensure that health systems are not only equitable and resilient but also self-reliant. A major highlight was the announcement of 15 National Health Compacts, five-year reform plans grounded in national budgets and priorities. Supported by the World Bank, WHO and other stakeholders, these compacts align national UHC strategies with fiscal frameworks and institutional accountability mechanisms.
Looking beyond 2030: toward national health stewardship
In a session organized by UHC2030 entitled “On the road to 2030 and beyond”, discussions pointed to UHC as a central organizing principle of global health architecture beyond 2030, highlighting the need for leadership, financial self-reliance and local ownership to enable sustainable progress towards UHC. This session emphasized the pivotal role the Forum will play in shaping global discussions on the post-2030 Agenda and in ensuring that the 2027 UN General Assembly's High-Level Meeting on UHC positions health financing as a central component of the post-SDG vision to achieve health equity. UHC2030 stands ready to bring the perspectives of different stakeholders—particularly communities and their people—to the table to ensure that country policies are driven by the right to health and people’s needs.
