News
The ILO supports the political declaration of 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on universal health coverage
The 78th General Assembly convened a high-level meeting on universal health coverage (UHC) on September 21st. This year's theme for the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC was "Universal Health Coverage: Expanding Our Ambition for Health and Well-being in a Post-COVID World.". A Political Declaration was issued, emphasizing the need to expedite efforts to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.
Within the declaration, the ILO wishes to draw attention to paragraph 14 of the political declaration, affirming that “recognize the fundamental importance of equity, social justice and social protection mechanisms as well as the elimination of the root causes of discrimination and stigma in health-care settings to ensure universal and equitable access to quality health services without financial hardship for all people, particularly for those who are vulnerable or in vulnerable situations”.
The ILO reasserts its commitment to a rights-based approach to UHC. This perspective is grounded in human rights principles and ILO standards, which together form a global consensus that guides the development of social health protection systems.
Universal Social Protection (USP) and UHC are complementary and mutually reinforce one another. No universal social protection without universal health coverage. The ILO's work on social health protection advances this rights-based approach to UHC. The primary objective of the ILO is to guarantee everyone has the right to effective social health protection and access to high-quality healthcare without incurring financial hardship. In its efforts to accomplish this, the ILO collaborate closely with the global partnership such as UHC2030, USP2030, and ILO flagship program.
Recent highlights of our work include:
Building national capacities on social health protection in Burundi
The ILO and its partners - the WHO and the P4H network – joined forces to support the government of Burundi on its pathway towards UHC and USP. A capacity building programme for key stakeholders of the social health protection system supports the development and revisions of the national Financing Strategy for Social Health Protection and the National Social Protection Policy.
Supporting refugees inclusion in social health protection in Ethiopia and Egypt
The ILO and UNHCR are conducting a feasibility study on the inclusion of refugees and asylum seekers in social health protection systems in Ethiopia and Egypt.
In Ethiopia, the study aims to identify the barriers and relevant solutions for refugees and asylum seekers to enrolling in the Community Based Health Insurance scheme, as a more sustainable mechanism to ensuring their access to affordable healthcare services.
In Egypt, a feasibility study on the enrolment of refugees and asylum seeks in the Egyptian Universal Health Insurance Scheme (UHIS) makes concrete recommendations and highlights pathways to improve the current healthcare coverage for refugees at par with nationals. This work is done through the support of the Partnership for improving prospects for forcibly displaced persons and host communities (PROSPECTS) project.
Assessing the introduction of a Maternity Cash Benefit Scheme in Kenya
Maternity benefits are crucial for the well-being of pregnant women, new mothers, and their families. They are particularly essential in ensuring adequate nutrition and improved adherence to pre-natal and post-natal care during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The ILO jointly with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) has conducted a feasibility study on the design and costing for the introduction of a Maternity Cash Benefit to extend maternity income protection for all women in Kenya, which has been included as a strategic priority for extending coverage to the informal economy. Video link is here.