EWEC Guide to UNGA74 (17-30 September 2019)
This year, the United Nations General Assembly General Debate opens on 24 September and closes on 30 September. The General Assembly high level week (23 -27 September) will highlight 5 major summits focused on the Action for People and Planet. The five major summits: Climate Action Summit, High level meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC summit), High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG summit), High level dialogue on Financing for Development (FfD summit), and progress on Small Island Developing States (SIDS summit).
These summits aim to galvanize actionable commitments from Governments, Non-Governmental Organizations, UN entities, private sector, civil societies and individuals. The United Nations Secretary General, Mr. António Guterres has urged everyone to come to New York with concrete actions to ensure that the lives, health and well-being of everyone is priority, ensuring no one or no climate change ravaged community, is left behind. In his opening remarks to start the new UNGA session, his words to leaders are: “Put people first- their needs, their aspirations and their rights. People want solutions, commitments and actions.” He also urged that all events for the general assembly “be translated into an impulse and momentum to do more, starting immediately, ensuring that people are kept at the center.”
Many Principals of the High-level Steering Group (HLSG) for EWEC will be championing EWEC in their engagements next week including H.E. Ms. Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia and Co-Chair of the EWEC HLSG, H.E. Ms. Tarja Halonen, former President of Finland and Alternate Co-Chair of the HLSG, and Ms. Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen, CEO of Plan International and a member of the EWEC HLSG.
The Every Woman Every Child Global Strategy aims to transform societies so that women, children and adolescents everywhere can realize their rights to the highest attainable standards of health and well-being. This is achieved by creating enabling environments for health that will in turn deliver enormous social, demographic and economic benefits and lead to sustainable development. This UNGA represents a turning point in the momentum towards the progress and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and its targets as well as the realization of UHC.
The presentation of concrete solutions on the acceleration of lagging SDGs will show promise of the number of projected lives saved and losses averted by 2030. The political declaration on UHC, which includes SRHR in accordance with the program of Action of ICPD that calls for women’s reproductive health and rights, once passed will make the reality of HealthForAll through UHC and the achievement of the SDGs closer to becoming realized.
In addition, improvements and investments in Primary Health Care (PHC) as part of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) provide an enabling environment of gender equality, which is linked to positive health and broader societal outcomes. When women and girls have access to the essential package of sexual and reproductive health services, they are poised to thrive, and there is at least a 10-fold return on investments. And when women and girls are empowered through investments in their development, especially in humanitarian settings, they transform as individuals and are able to transform their environments economically, socially and politically.
Click here for a list of side events hosted by EWEC and others we will engage in as well as events hosted by members of the EWEC ecosystem, including H6 UN Agencies, GFF, PMNCH and Women Deliver. Make sure to bookmark this link as the list will be updated daily with new events.
You can also find a list of other UNGA events curated by Global Health Strategies of here
(Please note that we cannot vouch for their validity or your chances of access to these meetings).
We look forward to seeing you next week in-person and online!
How to join the conversation online?
- Check out the EWEC’s Advocacy / Media Toolkit for UNGA74, which includes: EWEC HL Reception tweets and suggested messages for WCAH around the HLW themes, an EWEC Partners’ Social Media Guide, EWEC Partners’ HLM statements, Photo tiles for tweets, Facebook headers, quote cards with facts on WCAH and Picture memes for UHC.
- Follow the conversation online using hashtags: #EWECisME #UNGA74 #HealthForAll
Photo Credit: Sam Phelps |unicef sierreleone