The 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will open on 15 September 2020 at the UN Headquarters in New York, in a virtual format, with very limited presence in the building, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heads of states and governments from 193 Member States will exchange statements via pre-recorded messages, played in the General Assembly Hall, on the theme 'The future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism – confronting COVID-19 through effective multilateral action'.
High-level events will include the SDG Moment, commemoration of UN’s 75th anniversary, the Summit on Biodiversity, a high-level meeting on the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing+25) and several partner events taking place virtually.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as well as other WHO officials, will take part virtually in several of the events to champion the importance and urgency of global solidarity and support towards ending the COVID-19 pandemic and rebuilding health systems and economies to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Watch, listen and follow the events from wherever you are in the world on UN WebTV and find out more about the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly through its web page.
WHO SIDE EVENTS AT UNGA75
Infodemic management: promoting healthy behaviours in the time of COVID-19 and mitigating harm from misinformation and disinformation
23 September 2020 | 08:00 EST | 14:00 CET | 19:00 ICT |
Co-Sponsors: WHO, Indonesia, Thailand and Uruguay
Ensuring Equitable Access to Life-saving Immunizations in the time of COVID-19
23 September 2020 | 09:30 EST | 15:30 CET | 20:30 ICT |
The objective of this side event is to galvanize governments and humanitarian actors to safeguard interrupted immunization campaigns, outline key infrastructure that needs to be in place by the time a COVID-19 vaccine is developed, and highlight the need for global coordination to ensure equitable access to a COVID-19 vaccine. It also seeks to bring visibility to the COVAX Global Vaccine Facility.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, GAVI, IFRC
Progress and multisectoral action towards achieving global targets to end TB
23 September 2020 | 10:00 EST | 16:00 CET | 21:00 ICT |
A special UN virtual side event will discuss how we can collectively implement the recommendations outlined in the 2020 progress report of the UN Secretary-General on reaching global TB targets and advancing multisectoral action to end TB, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, Russian Federation
Digital Health Network of Networks: building the Global Digital Health Community
24 September 2020 | 08:00 EST | 14:00 CET | 19:00 ICT |
This event will discuss how we can bring together the global digital health community to collaborate and engage in the prioritization, adoption and acceleration of digital health technologies.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, ITU
Working with Member States to deliver the non-communicable disease-related Sustainable Development Goal targets during and beyond COVID-19
24 September 2020 | 10:00 EST | 16:00 CET | 21:00 ICT |
This side event will review the current work of the Task Force and agree on the ways to provide more effective UN system support to enable countries scale up their responses to NCDs during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, Russian Federation
How Tech Companies Cooperate to Address Threats and Global Crises
24 September 2020 | 15:00 EST | 21:00 CET | 02:00 ICT (25 September) |
Co-hosted event by the Office of the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Commemoration of the United Nations 75th Anniversary, the UN Department of Global Communications, the International Chamber of Commerce, Facebook, and WHO.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, Facebook, ICC
The challenge of a lifetime: Ensuring universal access to COVID-19 health technologies
25 September 2020 | 10:00 EST | 16:00 CET | 21:00 ICT |
This high-level event will feature a presentation of the vision and status of the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), an update on latest developments on R&D for COVID-19 tools, and a call to Member States, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, and other key stakeholders to endorse the “Solidarity Call to Action” towards ensuring the open knowledge exchange needed to develop the appropriate health tools to combat COVID-19.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, Costa Rica
YOUNGA Forum
28-29 September 2020 | Youth UN75 virtual conference in virtual Registration Link reality |
Co-Sponsors: WHO, BridgingTheGap Ventures, et al.
Sustainable Development Goals: Beyond COVID-19 Pandemic
29 September 2020 | 03:00 EST | 09:00 CET | 14:00 ICT (10 AM MECCA) |
This webinar will discuss the Sustainable Development Goals beyond COVID-19. Bahrain Vision Forum: Court of HRH Minister of Bahrain.
Co-Sponsors: WHO
Accelerating the end of the COVID-19 pandemic: taking new solutions to scale and making them equitably accessible, to save lives, protect health systems and restart the global economy
30 September 2020 | 08:30 EST | 14:30 CET | 19:30 ICT |
The United Nations Secretary-General, the United Kingdom, South Africa and WHO, will organize a virtual high-level side event to mark the progress that has been made in global collaboration to develop and ensure equitable access to new COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines through the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) and particularly its COVAX Global Vaccines Facility.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, EOSG, United Kingdom, South Africa
Youth and Health: Changemakers in the Changing World
30 September 2020 | 10:00 EST | 16:00 CET | 21:00 ICT |
A special WHO virtual side event is taking place at the 75th United Nations General Assembly on young people’s role in health. The event aims to address the challenges facing young people today, in a world changed drastically by the COVID-19 pandemic. Key speakers include the UN Secretary-General Youth Envoy, WHO leadership and several youth representatives.
Co-Sponsors: WHO
Sustainable preparedness for health security and resilience: Adopting a whole-of-society approach and breaking the “panic-then-forget” cycle
1 October 2020 | 07:00 EST | 13:00 CET | 18:00 ICT |
WHO and the Governments of the Republic of Finland, the Republic of Indonesia and the French Republic will co-host a meeting to bring together Ministers of Health and beyond, UN agencies, partners and donors interested and involved in public health emergency preparedness and response. It will capture good practices and lessons learnt in countries, explore innovative ways to address challenges, and seize opportunities and advances made during the COVID-19 pandemic to build better preparedness against future health threats.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, Finland, Indonesia, France
One Year Commemoration of the High-Level Meeting: Measuring Progress, Challenges and Opportunities in the Context of COVID-19
8 October 2020 | 08:00 EST | 14:00 CET | 19:00 ICT |
As we commemorate the one-year anniversary of the High-level Meeting on universal health coverage (UHC), it is the opportune moment to reflect on the commitments made at the High-level Meeting on UHC, taking into account the lessons learned and fault lines exposed during COVID-19.
Co-Sponsors: WHO, Co-chairs of the Group of Friends of Universal Health Coverage and Global Health, UHC2030, United Nation Foundation