blog<\/a> for the World Bank: \u201cUHC and health crisis management are two sides of the same coin. We are not alone in this view. In recent years, G7 and G20 leaders have also promoted strong and resilient health systems as vital to making progress toward UHC and ensuring effective health crisis management.\u201d<\/p>\nThat clearly hasn\u2019t happened in many countries, as the pandemic has demonstrated. But will COVID-19 provide the shock that is needed for governments to turn their words, and public commitments to UHC, into action?<\/p>\n
Viviane Hasselmann, Health Advisor at Switzerland\u2019s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, one of L4UHC\u2019s core funders, is hopeful yet uncertain. \u201cCOVID-19 has highlighted the necessity to push for UHC, but I\u2019m not sure governments will walk the talk,\u201d she says. \u201cUHC is a systemic endeavour for all health conditions and for all people but there\u2019s a risk that they\u2019ll reallocate budgets from other parts of the system for COVID-19, rather than reinforcing the entire system. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s also a risk that governments will respond very specifically, addressing only COVID-19 health consequences, rather than taking a multi-sectoral approach, which is needed. You have of course to respond to the immediate health emergency at the beginning, but in the medium and long term a coordinated, multi-sectoral approach is required. And that\u2019s true of UHC in general, not just in terms of managing the virus. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the coronavirus can cause serious and even fatal illness in humans, it\u2019s shown how public health crises like this one can have massive repercussions on other sectors. It\u2019s highlighted how determinants of health outside the health system, such as nutrition, pollution and education, can influence our ability to respond effectively to health crises and to develop sustainably. And vice versa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are signs that sectors are regrouping and working together, but will it last? I hope so. It won\u2019t avoid a new virus but it might reduce its negative impacts and its probability of transmission.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere seems to be greater momentum behind UHC now,\u201d she adds, \u201cBut we still have to work and push heavily for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The published article can be found here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pandemic has highlighted the importance of leadership and a multi-sectoral approach \u2013 two of the key strengths L4UHC is fostering. But will governments heed the lessons and accelerate UHC\u2019s roll-out? \u201cCOVID-19 reinforces the importance of global health \u2013 diseases don\u2019t respect frontiers \u2013 so we have to work together, even from a self-interested perspective,\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[],"tags":[123,124,128],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/987524850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987524850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/987524850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987524850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987524850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p4h.world\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987524850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}