In 2019, Member States unanimously adopted the For the Future vision which articulated a shared vision for WHO’s work with Member States and partners. Taking a systems approach with universal health coverage (UHC) as the foundation was outlined as one of the operational shifts necessary to transform and “future-proof” countries’ health systems. It is the most efficient, equitable and cost-effective approach to the design and delivery of health services.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fourth meeting of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Universal Health Coverage in the Western Pacific Region brought together TAG advisers, representatives from WHO and partner organizations from 19 countries and areas virtually to examine through the lens of COVID-19 the critical dimensions of realizing UHC in a changing world, seeking an accelerated approach to health system transformation and achieving UHC. Ministers of health from Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, vice minister of Health from Japan and adviser to the minister from Cambodia participated in the Ministerial Forum organized to share UHC progress, the pandemic’s impact to UHC and strategic ways forward.
During this TAG meeting, the TAG Alliance, a coordination mechanism brought together for the first time all TAGs in the Western Pacific Region to collectively work towards achieving the vision set out in For the Future.
Outcomes from the TAG meeting included 7 recommendations to Member States and 7 recommendations WHO. Member States were encouraged to consider, among others:
- Explicitly linking COVID-19-related investments to broader health systems development for advancing UHC and building an understanding and commitment to UHC as an investment in socioeconomic development.
- Translating UHC commitment into a vision for health and transformational plans that can be operationalized, monitored and regularly reviewed and enhanced, including through intra- and multisectoral collaboration and accountability with patient and community control over the way health services are provided.
- Reinvigorating the UHC focus on unreached and vulnerable populations, ensuring their engagement now and in the future as other health challenges emerge.
Using For the Future as the framework for thinking, WHO was requested to consider, among other recommendations:
- Continuing to contextualize WHO support to countries for strengthening UHC using a whole-of-system approach, as a key foundation for advancing health, well-being and socioeconomic vibrancy.
- Continuing to support countries in revisiting and redesigning PHC, where needed, and identify and promote models of service delivery that blend the capacity for rapid intensification with routine care provision.
- Assessing the role of UHC in the COVID-19 response to analyse and advise on how UHC should be strengthened to augment emergency preparedness and response.
Objectives:
The overall objective was for Member States to recommit to UHC under the “new normal” of COVID-19 and future threats. Specifically, the meeting objectives were:
- To review how COVID-19 is impacting country progress towards UHC and how the disease shapes our perspective of UHC as a foundation for realizing the SDG agenda;
- To investigate the pathways upon which to advance UHC in the “new normal” and other emerging challenges to health; and
- To identify opportunities for initiating health sector transformation for UHC in the “new normal” and the respective contributions of actors across and beyond the health sector.