GEEF

Background and Rationale
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is defined as 'ensuring that all people 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 the user to financial hardship.’ Because of the cross-cutting aspect of health, UHC is essential part of the SDGs, and bridging the gap in the field is not only an entry point to achieve the goals of health and well-being (SDG 3), but also all other goals.

UHC encompasses two components, health service coverage and financial protection coverage, and the problems are proliferated in both. Health is a field where substantial disparity still exists between the demand for action and the ability to rapidly and substantially responds to the needs. For instance, gender norms, roles and relations affect people’s susceptibility to different health conditions and diseases. Moreover, physical, economic, information accessibility to health service also have impact on people’s health outcomes throughout their life-course. By tackling various barriers undermining expansion of health coverage and financial protection to eventually leave no one behind, progressive universalism may be pursued. The session will serve as a venue to identify key obstacles still existing in the era of SDGs and to explore the solutions to bridge such gaps as a critical step forward to UHC.

Factors causing Health Disparity
Health is one of the most fundamental aspects of human development; it is an undisputable right and a key to development of society. Therefore, it is positioned as a key feature of human development in the SDGs again, but only in a more integrated manner than the MDGs. SDG 3 specifically focuses on health and several others related activities to improve health and to address its broader social, environmental, and economic determinants. The examples of such determinants are as followings:

i) Population Trends: It is inevitable that major population trends have impact on health. Although Fertility rates have been falling significantly in almost all regions, it still is high in the African Region. Approximately 40% of the population growth in 2015–2030 is projected in the region, which leads to, by 2030, more than one quarter of the children in the world dwelling in the region. On the other hand, already developed states are facing challenges caused by aging population, and those aged more than 60 is projected to be 50% by 2030. This will require transformation of existing health systems suitable for each states.

ii) Poverty and Income Inequality: Poverty is still a major determinant of health. Despite the achievements from the MDG era, one in seven people in developing regions still lives on less than USD 1.25 per day. For instance, more than 40% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is still in extreme poverty as of 2015. Development assistance for health needs to be concentrated in the world’s most unstable and fragile regions, and there is necessity for novel approaches.

iii) Gender Inequality and Violation of Human rights: While gender inequalities not only undermine basic freedoms of women and violate their human rights, but also adversely affect health and development outcomes of societies as a whole. The right to health needs to be re-emphasized to align with the achievement of UHC, specifically for women and vulnerable groups such as refugees and people with disabilities.

iv) Environmental Change: Environmental sustainability is one of the major concerns of the SDGs, and it addresses goals for water and sanitation, energy, cities and climate change. Climate change will have consequences for health such as droughts and desertification on food production causing malnutrition. Moreover, it may spread vectors of infectious diseases like malaria and dengue.

All these challenges have profound associations for health, and the SDGs concerning them have health issues across each and every aspect.

The Innovative Action to No One Behind
1) Country Actions : Bahrein and Myanmar

There is necessity of country action with high-level political commitment, coordinated national strategies and plans, implementation of innovative approaches followed by scaling-up of proven interventions. Special efforts of developing and practicing unified such national health policies, strategies and plans leads greatest progress towards UHC, and this is applicable regardless of the state’s economical status. For example, strategies to stem the tide of overwhelmingly increasing health expenditure by introducing proper and transparent reimburse system for health insurance may be beneficial to relocate resources other wise wasted for the health services to the poor. Having defined national essential medicines lists to guide purchasing decisions or established hospital accreditation schemes to improve quality of care would be other examples of country efforts to strengthen health services. In this session, some panelists will be presenting the past, current, and future endeavors of panelists’ respective countries have strived towards achieving UHC through collective and comprehensive country action.

2) Global Partnership : World Bank, UNFPA, WHO

Global declarations and partnerships have made a significant impact on health system of partner countries and achievement of UHC. The roles of collective and comprehensive partnership of actors, meaning each and every states, civil society, international organizations, or commercial sector is profound as the experience of the world attained the MDG target – to cut the 1990 poverty rate in half by 2015 – in 2010.

This session will also serve as an opportunity to delve deeper into the global partnership and the work to bridge the gap in the field of health as a critical step forward to UHC. Presentation of some panelists and discussions followed by the presentations will explore means to strengthen the engagement of various actors, facilitate cooperation in key strategic areas, and implement joint programs and reviews.

Moreover, there also will be discussions regarding tentatively named Born to Five Initiative formed by cooperative efforts of KOICA, WHO, UN Women, UNFPA, and the World Bank with goal of reducing gender disparity in health. The ideas and knowledge to create a new global networking and knowledgesharing platform for the development, reproduction, and dissemination of health equity agenda will be explored.

3) Innovative Approaches : World Bank, WHO, Incheon

The discussion also cover the topics of innovative approaches, with priority of the discussion in strengthening the quality, coverage, and affordability of health interventions, including assessing and monitoring of service providers and recipients; prompt tracking, gathering, and analysis of health events; and ensuring the empowerment of neglected populations and that the health workers are responsive to their needs.

An example of an innovative approach would be the introduction and the use of mobile health in neglected regions and populations. mHealth is a widely recognized health practice increasingly essential to secure health accessibility in resource limited conditions. Rapidly decreasing costs have led to widespread of telecommunications technologies as International Telecommunications Union estimates more than seven billion mobile telephone subscriptions with more than two-thirds of which are in low- and middle- income countries. In many cases in such countries, people are more than likely to have reasonable access to a mobile phone and communication services than to a bank account, paved roads, or, ironically, electricity.

For Example, in the case of OpenMRS, information on primary health worker’s mobile device can be provided, and when data on TB treatment and dosage was recorded, data may be uploaded to EHR system at the same time. It also is being used for vaccination records, infant and child growth records, and etc. Moreover, for RMNCH, by registering the mother, there is a connection between the mother’s household and health care center to provide necessary maternal care increasing the rate of antenatal care and facility based delivery. For example, mHealth specifically is effective in the control of the Noncommunicable Disease (NCDs). mHealth application to control diabetes mellitus may be used as a tool to register the patient and to keep the patient monitored with glucose level and preventive behaviors such as diet management and exercise. By letting both service providers and users aware the current health status and guiding to proper preventive behavior, the management of DM can be more effective. The data warehouse of the information collected also may provide political implications for policy makers to set a strategy to control the disease.

Background and Rationale

Around the world today, women and girls are still left behind and excluded from full participation in society at many levels. According to UNESCO estimates, 130 million girls between the age of 6 and 17 are not in school. The share of illiterate women has not changed for the past 20 years, with two-thirds of the world’s 774 million illiterate adults being women. Despite a growing number of women entering political positions in recent years, women account for a mere 23.8 percent of parliamentary seats. In the private sector, women occupy less than a third of senior and middle management positions worldwide.

Increasing gender equality will contribute to achieving more inclusive and sustainable development in all other sectors. Improving access to higher education and decent jobs for women and girls can help in overcoming barriers to progress by allowing women to have a greater voice and influence in advancing their own needs, interests, and priorities. The extent to which gender equality is achieved depends on the actions taken by all stakeholders, including governments, civil society, and businesses.

Early and sustained engagement with women and girls should be a priority rather than an afterthought. In the era of globalization and multiculturalism which is transforming our society with a flow of diverse ideas, cultures, and religions, women are faced with a new set of roles and challenges. This period of transition offers a unique window to break the cycle of women’s marginalization and to make significant strides towards their inclusion. To this end, this session will serve to highlight the importance of women’s empowerment and gender equality for inclusive and sustainable development.

Key Message

Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment, which is Goal 5 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is integral to all dimensions of inclusive and sustainable development. Enhancing the role of women as drivers of poverty reduction, fostering female leadership in both the public and private sectors, and recognizing the link between gender equality and safeguarding human rights, are key to bringing about the necessary changes.

This session intends to raise awareness of the benefits of empowering women worldwide and to create an enabling environment for them to play a more active role in society by taking a much more proactive and collaborative approach on all levels. It will gather leading female high-ranking officials and professionals from across the globe to share their experiences and insights on the immense potential of women to bolster economic growth and the importance of women’s leadership and empowerment, even during difficult times. It is thus our objective to bring voices of women together in the promotion of solidarity in the pursuit of gender parity and the rights of women.

The host of this session, the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens (BKMC), aims to empower women and youth by supporting them to thrive as global citizens that actively tackle global issues and seek for ways to implement and advance the SDGs. The Centre’s Co-chairs and Board Members have actively spoken out in international conferences and forums, tackling issues and urging leaders of the world to make changes. BKMC CEO Monika Froehler will moderate this session, which will provide opportunities for the audience to discover how strengthening women’s societal impact and position will advance the interconnected global goals. By facilitating conversation and debate among the high-level speakers, the session will deliver synergized ideas to expedite the pursuit of gender equality and the consolidation of the rights of women as human rights.

Possible Questions

Objective: To underline the importance of women’s empowerment to achieve inclusive and sustainable development.

Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana
Asia and the Pacific remains the engine of global economic growth and is at the forefront of fight against poverty. However, women in the region continue to face discriminatory policies, social and cultural barriers and the gender gaps. How can we narrow these gaps and increase the capacity of women living in this region? How can we enhance women’s economic empowerment, integrate gender concerns into national planning and budgetary processes, and promote the value of women’s transformative leadership?

Ms. Helen Clark
UN data shows that, on a global scale, the percentage of women in single or lower houses of national parliament has increased from 19 per cent in 2010 to around 23 per cent in 2018. You have also continuously emphasized that “having women in leadership positions not only sends a powerful message to other women but also changes societies’ perceptions of gender roles and encourages girls to believe that no door is closed to them.” As one of the few female politicians elected as New Zealand’s Prime Minister and former UNDP Administrator, why would you say this is the case and what further actions need to be taken on a global, national, and local level?

Ms. Irina Bokova
Having initiated global citizenship education during your previous tenure as the Director General of UNESCO, how would you define the term ‘global citizenship’ and what role do you think that the notion of global citizenship plays in achieving gender equality? You have mentioned that “gender equality benefits everyone, not just women” and that “it is an accelerator of political, economic and social transformations,” saying that it is a global priority for UNESCO and a personal commitment. How does women’s empowerment contribute to advancing the overall SDGs other than SDG 5?

Mr. Mahmoud Mohieldin
The World Bank Group considers that no country, community, or economy can achieve its potential or meet the challenges of the 21st century without the full and equal participation of women and men, girls and boys. How can the public and private sectors cooperate to close the gender gaps? The World Bank reports that human capital wealth could increase by 21.7 percent globally, and total wealth by 14.0 percent with gender equality in earnings. How can we achieve this?

Ms. Ăsa Regnér
UN Women has actively involved men in raising awareness and tackling gender inequality through multiple campaigns such as HeForShe. What role should men have in addressing gender inequality and how is their involvement important? Eradicating gender-based violence and sexual harassment has also been one of the main priorities of UN Women. What can individuals do to help eradicate violence towards women?