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Political

The UK Government should articulate their integrated and comprehensive approach to global health through:

  • Publishing a cross-government global health strategy covering all UK government health ODA spend, and ensuring this will deliver against SDG 3, towards achieving UHC, and the ‘leave no one behind’ pledge, as well as working through the synergies between SDG 3 and all other SDGs, including ending poverty (SDG 1), zero hunger (SDG 2), gender equality (SDG 5), water and sanitation (SDG 6), and building strong and transparent institutions (SDG 16), amongst others;
  • Publishing the ‘Action Plan’ for ending the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children and Health Systems Strengthening Position Paper.

Drawing on pride in our own National Health Service and learning from COVID-19, the UK should strengthen its public commitments to delivering UHC by 2030, through:

  • Promoting an ambitious vision for building resilient, inclusive health systems and achieving UHC through the UK’s G7 Presidency, the Nutrition for Growth Summit and the 2021 COP26 Summit;
  • Appointing a UK Special Envoy for global health, to champion the UK’s role in global health on the international stage and to oversee the implementation of the UK Government’s manifesto commitment to ending the preventable deaths of mothers, newborns and children. 

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office should place global health as a central objective of their work, through: 

  • Prioritising interventions and approaches that work to improve global health, reduce poverty and ensure the most marginalised have access to health services over UK interests;
  • Chairing the cross-government Global Health Oversight Group and overseeing the UK’s ODA to health, ensuring policy coherence across all relevant government departments;
  • Protecting DFID’s staff and expertise on global health and maintaining seats on the boards of all relevant global health institutions, including Gavi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, UNFPA and UNITAID.

Financial

The UK Government should sustain their role as a leading donor to global health through:

  • Maintaining ODA to health at least above 0.1% of GNI, as well as ensuring funding to non-COVID-19 health interventions is maintained, particularly in light of ODA budget cuts, to avoid further, and more severe, loss of life;
  • Maintaining their world-leading role in providing long-term, bold pledges to key global health goals and partnerships; 
  • Stepping up efforts to build strong, resilient, inclusive health systems everywhere through increasing aid to country governments to develop transparent and accountable public financial management systems and deliver health systems support;
  • Recommitting to untied aid and developing a strategy to shift aid spending to Southern actors, supported by stronger ongoing consultation with Southern actors about their priorities and needs.

Programmatic

The UK Government should reflect their political commitment to achieving UHC by 2030 in their programming through:

  • Ensuring all UK health ODA contributes to strong, resilient health systems, in line with national priorities;
  • Significantly scaling up support to countries to develop, finance and deliver long- term human resource strategies for health;
  • Increasing support to national strategies advancing UHC, such as free healthcare initiatives and initiatives reducing out-of-pocket payments, ensuring that they are reaching the furthest behind, first; 
  • Supporting national public financial management efforts to ensure that national health budgets are optimized and commitments to increase domestic resources for health are realised;
  • Ensuring the Prosperity Fund’s Better Health Programme, and CDC’s health investments, make clear how these investments reach the poorest and most vulnerable people, and guarantee financial risk protection in all health outputs.
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