Since the World Health Organization (WHO) released their report on universal health coverage (UHC) in 2010, 70 countries have asked them for technical assistance to get on the path to achieve UHC. As part of the WHO’s ongoing work to assist countries, they recently co-hosted with the World Bank a ministerial meeting on UHC in Geneva.

This week, Action for Global Health (AfGH) is joining dignitaries such as Amina Mohamed, special adviser to the UN Secretary General, and the Ministers of Health from Sudan, Indonesia and Argentina, amongst others, in a ‘High Level Dialogue’ in Botswana. This important meeting concludes the UN’s consultation on health in the global development framework that follows the expiry of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015.

Cross-posted at Bright Blue The UK Parliament’s International Development Committee (IDC) has today published a report on the debate about the development framework to follow the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. The report wraps up the IDC’s ‘enquiry’ on the post-MDGs during which they heard from VIPs like Amina Mohammed, Special Advisor to the [...]

As the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development approaches, Action for Global Health wants to highlight the critical importance of health in this debate and support the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) position and the Brazilian proposal[1] to include health in the  Rio+20 outcome document. Health bridges the two fields of environmental protection and human rights [...]

The next WHO Executive Board meeting will be key for the future of global health as it will set a foundation for global commitments against poverty and health inequities that will be made after 2015.

Busan provides decision-makers with a key opportunity to make decisions which could make a huge difference to development and global health programmes. However, are developed countries and emerging economies really as committed as they say they are…?

Last June, world leaders met in New York at the UN High Level Meeting on AIDS to renew their effort to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support for HIV by 2015 under the slogan: “Intensifying our efforts to eliminate HIV and AIDS”. However in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo there is still lot to do around those issues. What has been done so far? Does everybody have access to prevention, treatment, care, and support for HIV according to the aim of the Universal Access?

I am a woman with two university degrees who went to a private though free school. My family did not receive means-tested benefits. Had I grown up where I live now, in the Borough of Southwark, London, my privileged start into life would put my life-expectancy up to seven years ahead of those who are at the bottom end of the social scale. Similarly, in Guatemala, the maternal mortality ratio among indigenous women is up to three times higher than for the rest of the population.

The European Commission has published its vision for the future of EU development policy with an “Agenda for Change”. This policy document represents the stamp of the Barroso II commission on development policy and is the result of internal Commission reflections following the many responses they received to a Green Paper on “Sustainable and Inclusive Growth” last year.

The European Parliament Working Group on Access to Medicines organised a hearing yesterday on FTT for health and development, supported by Action for Global Health. The panel consisted of a number of prominent speakers, although unfortunately there was no representative from DG Devco following Commissioner Andris Piebalgs last minute decision to pull out of the event.