PHM-Exch> Reflections from the UN High-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage

[Remco van de Pas]

Dear all,

Please find my reflections from the High-level Meeting on UHC and UNGA74 in the two blogs below.

All bests, Remco

Change is gonna come

"I was this week in New York, at the United Nations. More specifically I participated in the UN High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage as a representative of the Medicus Mundi International - Network Health for All! The UHC meeting was part of a series of high-level political meetings taking place before and during the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.

In preparation for the HLM on UHC, I already wrote that I consider the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a kind of "golden straightjacket" and that we need to alter the narrative on health development towards an overall "limits to growth" thinking. In this article, I will mainly reflect on the process, setting and actors present at (and around) UNGA74, specifically related to UHC. After an intensive week of listening to national Presidents and others praising the UHC momentum, rushing between strategic meetings and side events in (too) fancy New York hotels, and 'Walking the Talk' in Central Park, I can distill several observations from all this frantic activity."

https://www.internationalhealthpolicies.org/featured-article/change-is-gonna-come-whether-you-we-like-it-or-not/


The Universal Health Coverage Divide

"So, where are we now, 30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall? The UHC declaration indicates that the (seductive) story of sustainable development and inclusive economic growth remains pervasive. This includes the image of 'explanatory nationalism' which holds that national differences in development trajectories are the key factors explaining why severe poverty persists. The focus on domestic resource mobilization largely ignores the reality of deep globalization and what economists refer to as a golden straightjacket. Following this line, I doubt that many low-income countries will have the fiscal space to finance inclusive UHC by 2030, unless more heterodox economic approaches in public investment are considered."

https://www.internationalhealthpolicies.org/blogs/the-universal-health-coverage-divide/



Dr. Remco van de Pas
Senior Research Fellow Global Health Policy
Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp
Lecturer Global Health, Maastricht University

Departement of Public Health
Nationalestraat 155, 2000
Antwerp, Belgium

Email:     rvandepas at itg.be<mailto:rvandepas at itg.be> / r.vandepas at maastrichtuniversity.nl<mailto:r.vandepas at maastrichtuniversity.nl>
Tel:         +32 484737245/ +31 625312879
Skype:    r.vandepas
Twitter: @Rvandepas
Web:      http://www.internationalhealthpolicies.org


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20190929/f5f69ef7/attachment.html>