High Level meeting on Health

As reported by UNICEF, the High-level Dialogue has taken place in Gaborone, Botswana, on 5-6 March 2013. Organized by the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and with the support of the Governments of Botswana and Sweden, advancing health priorities in the post-2015 agenda were discussed.

The meeting brought together some 50 participants from Member States, members of the UN High-level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda (HLP), health ministers, civil society, academic institutions and the private sector. The participants discussed a draft report on health in the post-2015 agenda, including recommendations for framing the future agenda for health. The report, which was based on e-discussions and inputs on the World We Want 2015 website and 13 face-to-face discussions in different regions, calls for placing health at the center of the post-2015 agenda to protect environmental sustainability and advance economic development, human well-being, equity and social justice.

In opening the meeting, President of Botswana Seretse Khama Ian Kham called on participants to develop clearly articulated, visible goals that reflect the linkages between development and health, noting that health is critical for sustainable development. Other speakers included Michel Sidibé, Executive Director, Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), who said that health goals and indicators can support progress in other areas, such as equity, gender equality and human rights.  Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director, said the online consultations had resulted in proposals for several possible goals, including: universal health coverage; an increase in health life expectancy; a reduction in non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality; sexual and reproductive rights goals; an AIDS-free generation; and ending preventable child and maternal deaths. He recommended that health goals be “universal, explainable, measurable and equitable,” and called for targeting neglected and hard-to-reach populations to reduce health inequities.

The draft report on health will be finalized to include the outcomes of the High Level Dialogue and submitted to the UN Secretary-General and the HLP to inform their reports on the post-2015 agenda.

For further information please visit: http://post2015.iisd.org/news/post-2015-consultation-on-health-culminates-in-high-level-dialogue/