Zero Draft of Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage released

Access the Political Declaration of the High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage zero draft here: https://bit.ly/2JxRMhP

The draft declaration references ‘palliative health services’,  ‘life-course approaches’ and a ‘holistic approach’ in the following sections:

6. Universal health coverage means that all people and communities can use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose individuals and families to financial hardship;

10. The primary role and responsibility of governments to determine their own path towards achieving UHC and underscore the importance of pursuing whole-of government and whole-of-society approaches, as well as health-in-all-policies approaches, equity-based approaches and life-course approaches;

12. Recognize the fundamental importance of equity, social cohesion and social protection mechanisms to ensure access to health without financial hardship for all people particularly for those who are vulnerable or marginalized;

The draft was informed by the multi-stakeholder hearing on 29 April 2019 at UN General Assembly Hall, where civil society groups submitted 141 statements – of which “palliative” was referenced 41 times.

All the statements submitted are posted here: https://bit.ly/2VGspw0

The Zero Draft concludes with a request to the UN Secretary-General for Member States to provide a bi-annual monitoring report on the progress in all health-related SDGs, in particular on moving towards UHC based on the inclusions in the declaration.

Next steps