Thailand calls WHO members to endorse the UHC declaration

Thailand calls on all country members of the World Health Organization (WHO) to endorse the United Nation’s resolution on Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The call came up during the WHO’s 152nd Executive Board Meeting held at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland from 30 January to 7 February.

The Executive Board is composed of 34 technically qualified members elected for three-year terms.

The main functions of the board are to implement the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly, and to advise and generally facilitate its work.

UHC is one of the main agendas in the board meeting, in which the WHO sets a goal to make one billion more people benefit from universal healthcare.

Piyanart Luangwilaiwan, a UHC budget and planning specialist from the National Health Security Office, represented Thailand in calling all WHO’s country members to accelerate their effort to achieve UHC Interventioned by her. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has hampered the implementation of the UNGA [United Nations General Assembly] Political Declaration on Universal Health Coverage,”.

“This calls for an urgent need to invest in more resilient health systems focused on primary health care, with adequate and qualified health workforces to support UHC.” 

The Political Declaration on UHC was adopted during the United Nations high-level meeting in 2019, in which member states recognize health as a precondition for and an indicator of social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

Under the declaration, countries commit to achieving UHC by 2030 to scale up the global effort to build a healthier world for all.




Piyanart said that experiences in Thailand had demonstrated the crucial role of strong primary health care and UHC in responding to the pandemic.

To ensure coverage effectiveness, the country has addressed the incidence of unmet health needs in its UHC’s indicator, which measures low access to health services
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“Thailand commits to fully engage in the regional consultation on unmet health need, as part of the ongoing WHO review process of health-related SDG [Sustnable Development Goal] indicators,” Interventioned by  Piyanart.