Health For All: Time For Action
12 December is always an important day at mothers2mothers (m2m). Why? It’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day—a complicated name for a simple goal, namely that everyone, everywhere, should be able to get the health services they need and deserve, without financial hardship. We’re completely committed to this goal, and our 2022-2026 strategic plan lays out how we are playing our part—delivering healthcare for families who need it most, by women who know them best. With more than 615 million people across the African continent still not able to access basic health services, this work and focus is more urgent than ever, especially as the Global Goal to achieve health for all by 2030 is just seven years away.
This year was particularly critical as the international community came together to review progress made towards delivering health for all and leaving no one behind, and to re-assess what still needs to be done to ensure this can become a reality by 2030. The culmination of this work was a new United Nations (UN) Political Declaration on UHC adopted by the UN General Assembly in October, which—critically—recognises the vital role that community health workers (CHWs) like m2m Mentor Mothers play in delivering primary health care (PHC) and health for all for some of the world’s most marginalised and vulnerable communities.
Achieving UHC by 2030 will require thoughtfully considering and integrating CHW solutions and responses. UHC depends on PHC, which in turn relies on paid, professional, skilled, and supported CHWs—in other words: CHWs + PHC = UHC. Doing this successfully will deliver significant progress—research shows that scaling up PHC interventions across low- and middle-income countries could deliver the kind of gains that will firmly set the world on the path to achieving health for all by 2030—from saving 60 million lives to increasing life expectancy by 3.7 years.
But a lot more needs to be done to make this dream a reality. That is why, with seven years to go to make the Sustainable Development Goals a reality, today, we are joining UHC 2030’s call to action for the Declaration to serve as an immediate and tangible call to action for policymakers, funders, and implementers everywhere. If we turn the words of the Declaration into action, we CAN achieve the desperately needed goal of health for all by 2030.
And, as inspiration for action, who better to hear from than m2m’s frontline staff who are working tirelessly to turn these words into tangible progress and changes for their communities? Fresh off the heels of the gobal rallying cry to “Let Communities Lead” the powerful theme for World AIDS Day a couple of weeks ago, which is as relevant to the fight against HIV/AIDS as it is to the broader goal of health for all, we asked Mentor Mothers why they, and their communities, are best placed to meet the evolving and increasingly complex health needs of their peers.
If you too want to support m2m in turning words into action, then sign up to our newsletter to and stay up to date on how we are ensuring CHWs get the pay, support, and recognition they deserve to unlock health for all.
