The UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on UHC was held in New York on 23 September 2019

Date

The UN HLM on UHC took place on 23 September 2019 at UN Headquarters in New York, one day prior to the opening session of the high-level General Debate.

Level of Participation

The 73rd President of the General Assembly and Secretary General of UN invited invited all member states to the UN HLM.  The highest level participations were requested to member states, specifically at the Head of State level. List of registered participants from member states is available here. 

Outcomes

Member states agreed that the UN HLM will ‘approve a concise and action-oriented political declaration, agreed in advance by consensus through intergovernmental negotiations, to be submitted by the President of the General Assembly for adoption by the Assembly’.  The outcome document of the meeting (i.e. political declaration) can be viewed here.

Overview

The Opening Segment features statements by the President of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session, the Secretary-General, the Director General of the World Health Organization, the President of the World Bank Group, as well as an eminent high-level champion of universal health coverage, selected, in consultation with Member States, by the President of the General Assembly, giving due consideration to gender equity.  (Trusteeship Council Chamber)

The Plenary Segment comprises statements by Member States and observers of the General Assembly; a list of speakers was established in accordance with established practices of the Assembly, and the time limits for these statements were three minutes for individual delegations and five minutes for statements made on behalf of a group of States. (Trusteeship Council Chamber)

Multi-stakeholder Panel 1 Universal Health Coverage as a driver of equity, inclusive development and prosperity for all. (ECOSOC Chamber)

Multi-stakeholder Panel 2 Accelerating Multi-sectoral and Multi-Stakeholder Action and Investments for achieving Universal Health Coverage. (ECOSOC Chamber)

The Closing Segment comprises summaries of the multi-stakeholder panels and concluding remarks by the President of the General Assembly. (Trusteeship Council Chamber)

Recordings of the UN HLM are available on the website of the UN Web TV. Please find the links to the HLM Segments below: 

The statements submitted from participants of the UN HLM on UHC are available here. 

Final Program

The final program for the multi-stakeholder panels is presented in the following table:

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME

Time & Venue

Session

09:00 – 09:30

Trusteeship Council Chamber

Opening Segment

Approval of the Political Declaration on UHC

  • H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly
  • Mr. António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
  • Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization
  • Mr. David R. Malpass, President, World Bank Group (TBC)
  • Ms. Gro Brundtland, Eminent High-level champion of Universal Health Coverage

09:30 – 13:00

Trusteeship Council Chamber

Plenary Segment

Statements by Member States

 

11:00 – 13:00

ECOSOC Chamber

Panel 1: UHC as a driver of equity, inclusive development and prosperity for all

This panel emphasizes health as a precondition for and an indicator and outcome of the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, while contextualizing UHC as an umbrella for achieving healthy lives and well-being for all. UHC means implementing health policies and designing health systems, which promote equity, efficiency and effectiveness and ensure financial risk protection, to reach every person and community, particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized, with quality integrated and people-centered health services, delivering not only the fundamental right to health, but also the broader human rights agenda, ensuring no one is left behind.

Co-chairs:

  • H.E. Ms. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
  • H.E. Mr. Pedro Sánchez, Secretary-General of the Spanish Socialist Worker's Party

Panelists:

  • Ms. Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
  • Ms. Maha Taysir Barakat, Chair of the Board of the Partnership to end Malaria
  • Ms. Winnie Byanyima, Deputy Director of Oxfam International
  • Mr. Jeffrey Sachs, Professor at the Healthcare Centre of Sustainable Development Columbia

15:00 – 17:30

Trusteeship Council Chamber

Plenary Segment

Statements by Member States

 

15:00-17:00

ECOSOC Chamber

Panel 2: Accelerating multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder action and investments for achieving UHC

This panel explores the investment case for UHC. As one of the main sectors of the global economy, the health sector has the potential to produce large returns on investment, both in terms of health gains and for equitable and inclusive economic growth. Countries from all regions and at all levels of income will need to mobilize more domestic resources, increase the equity and efficiency of existing resources, harmonize investments in health, and establish, institutionalize and accelerate multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder action and sustained investment to achieve UHC by 2030.

Co-chairs:

  • Dr. Adolfo Rubinstein, Minister of Health of Argentina
  • H.E. Don Pramudwinai, Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand

Panelists: 

  • Ms. Helen Clark, Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health 
  • Mr. Omar Ishrak, Chairman and CEO of Medtronic
  • Ms. Ngozi Okonio-Iweala, Former Minister of Finance of Nigeria; Board Chair of Gavi
  • Mr. Keizo Takemi, Member of the Japanese House Of Chancellor, WHO UHC Goodwill Ambassador

17:30 – 18:00

Trusteeship Council Chamber

Closing Segment

  • H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly

Multistakeholder Participation

Member states emphasized the participation of civil society and private sector throughout the resolution, including agreement to hold a UN HLM Multistakeholder Hearing in New York, encouraging inclusion of civil society and private sectors in member state delegations, inclusion of UHC eminent speaker in the opening segment, and agreement to invite non-ECOSOC accredited organizations to the UN HLM. 

Registration for the UN HLM closed on 9 August 2019.

Registration to attend the UN HLM was mandatory and was open to two groups only:
- Organizations in consultative status with ECOSOC 
- All entities that have been specially-accredited to the UN HLM process

A confirmation notice was sent in later August. Due to increased security of the high-level week of the UNGA, all approved participants will receive secondary tickets that will allow access to the UN HLM on 23 September only.

For more detailed information, please consult related items below.

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