WHO at the 145th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly
WHO will host a 2-hour parliamentary side event, aligned to priority areas of collaboration established in the WHO - IPU MoU (2018) and the Assembly General Debate theme: Gender equality and gender-sensitive parliaments as drivers of change for a more resilient and peaceful world.
The event supports WHO’s parliamentary strategy aiming to bridge policy and science to improve political and financial commitments to health for all.
It takes place in the context of global preparations for the second United Nations High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), to be held in New York, USA, in September 2023, and aims to strengthen parliamentarians’ capacity to act on UHC, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and gender equality.
Date: 12 October
Time: 12:00-14:00 CAT
Venue: Kigali Convention Centre, Room AD10
Languages: English and French (bidirectional)
Overview
IPU’s landmark resolution on UHC is a strong instrument to mobilize parliaments on ensuring that the right to public health and medical care is guaranteed for all in law and in practice, without discrimination. Such action is urgently needed: half of the world’s population lacks access to essential health services, including SRH services.
Every person has sexual and reproductive healthcare needs, but comprehensive SRH services are often not included in national UHC strategies or health benefits packages. This is an issue of gender inequality, as well as health inequity. Girls and women, adolescents, and those living in fragile contexts require specific SRH services; UHC fails when they cannot access them due to availability, affordability or stigma .
Excitingly, parliamentarians around the world are increasingly seeing this challenge as an opportunity. Gender equality is a pre-condition for realizing the right to health, and for all people to fully participate in society – and SRH sits at the intersection of the Sustainable Development Goals on health (SDG3) and gender equality (SDG5).
There are a number of tools and approaches parliamentarians can use to ensure that as UHC becomes both a priority and a reality in every country, it is gender-responsive, and not gender-blind. By using disaggregated data to remove gender-based discrimination in the implementation of UHC and ensuring that health-sector interventions protect sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially for adolescents, parliamentarians are unlocking gender equality within UHC and beyond.
Discussion
This event brings together parliamentarians and health experts in a listening and learning discussion asking:
- What are some concrete examples of successes and challenges for integrating SRH at the national level?
- What support is needed for parliamentarians in advocating for SRH within -UHC?
For more information, please contact: Sarah Kessler – kesslers@who.int