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Private commercial investment has been increasingly promoted as a requirement for achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the SDGs, given the inadequacy of public budgets. Yet such investment is risky and costly, often deepening inequalities, eroding public health principles, and creating inefficiencies.

At the same time, calls for transformative change to the global financial architecture and dominant economic paradigms have intensified, driven by widening inequality, environmental destruction, and persistent poverty.

The WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All has been a leading voice in this movement. Following its landmark report, WHO has drafted a 2026–2030 strategy on the economics of health for all, to be tabled at the upcoming Executive Board meeting (provisional agenda item 26).

This session will catalyse discussion on:

• How WHO and member states can operationalize the Council’s recommendations

• Ensuring the proposed strategy contributes to transformative economic change 

Join us for a breakfast meeting to discuss the centrality of economic policies and systems to effective public health and the importance of WHO’s draft strategy on the economics of health for all.

Speakers:

• Surya Deva – UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Development

• Nicoletta Dentico – Society for International Development (SID), G2H2

• David McCoy – United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH)

• Els Torreele – Æqua, Think Space on Equity and Economic Justice for Health

• Anna Vassall – World Health Organization (WHO)

• Benjamin Wood – Member of UNU-IIGH Financialisation Expert Group

Moderator: Baba Aye, Public Services International (PSI), G2H2

Organized by:

G2H2, Public Services International (PSI), Society for International Development (SID), United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH)