Policy brief: Post 2015 to WHA

Policy brief: Post 2015

The International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations is the international representative body of the 1.3 million medical students of the world as well as being a voice for the youth.

The development of the post 2015 agenda has thus far involved a broad, open consultative process with a variety of stakeholders including the youth. The youth appreciate the encouraged involvement of young people in this process thus far and urge the UN, WHO and member states to continue promoting the participation of the youth. Young people are the future and engaging them in the consultation, planning and implementation of the post 2015 agenda will promote young people claiming and investing in this future

Key principles

1. In the formulation of the post 2015 agenda, the principles of equity, sustainability, universality and the maintenance of momentum from the past MDG framework must be remembered.

• We think it is vital that we learn from the past and ensure that goals are created in a manner which are upheld by a variety of underlying values and principles.

o Progress has occurred but in most instances it has been inequitable. Equity should not form a singular goal but rather underpin each area in the post 2015 agenda and be specified

o Goals, strategies and implemented initiatives must be created in a manner that is sustainable and intersects with the sustainable development goals

o There needs to be a shift away from vertically oriented programs to horizontal, reflecting to initial aspirations of the Alma Ata conference and the need for maintaining the framework of goals that are global

o It is important that new agendas are not created to the detriment of old ones. Many of the MDGs are yet to be achieved and we must maintain momentum through creating goals that smoothly transition and involve the old MDG framework within the new

2. The role of health across multiple sectors must be considered in order to create sustainable human development

• We urge the consideration of health and the impacts that other thematic areas of the planned post-2015 agenda have on its attainment. Furthermore, beyond the concepts of development, health should be considered in all policies to reflect the multi-sectoral, cross cutting nature of global health.

3. The consideration of the unique obstacles young people face in achieving health and hence implementing strategies to tackle these through involvement of the youth in consultation, planning and implementation.

• We support the universality of goals in the new development agenda but emphasise the importance of highlighting at risk populations like adolescents. Young people face a number of unique health issues including sexual reproductive health, mental health, nutrition as well as issues affecting their ability to attain health such as forced/early marriage, homelessness, alcohol and tobacco and access to education

Day 02 - WHO World Health Assembly

We started the second day with an energizing youth strategic meeting and a short briefing session. Attended a side event on "Influenza: we can do better" organized by the World Medical Association, and opening remarks made by the WMO president on revolving Influenza viruses, the first speaker Ms. Ingrida Circene, Minister of Health, Republic of Latvia, highlighted the importance of vaccination program which is one of the most effective way of prevention of Influenza.

Youth Strategic Meeting

At WHA side event

At UN Geneve office

Side event by GHC

The afternoon plenary started with three special speakers, one of them was the Chairperson of African Union. She stated that the member states of African Union intensely working on enhancing the quality of life. African Union adopted the Agenda 2063 vision, which is to create an integrated and peaceful way of living which is investing in its people,
Africa is growing at a rate of 5%, which is highly depending on natural resources. Most of the natural resources are undervalued, people do not pay tax, corruption is really high, and these are some of the issues that African Union is facing. The chairperson further stressed that the member states looking for intra African trade agreement, adding value to biodiversity, where 25%of worlds biodiversity including flora and fauna is in Africa,
The second speaker was the minister of International development and corporation of Sweden, in her speech she emphasized that the government can provide the environment to make individual decisions which will effects themselves. The choices are in our hand. She is a member of the high level panel of post 2015 development agenda and she facilitated the Health Thematic consultations in Bostwana.
Dr. Kim from the World Bank group highlighted the importance of effective health services, emphasized the importance Alma Ata declaration.
The WB has a vision to free the Nations from absolute poverty by 2030 and the WB is facing two challenges specifically on health related development.

He said….
-No family in the world faces access to health because of poverty.
-Lets close the health gaps for poorest population of any country.

He further added that the developing primary health care and public health care may control the finances and expenses on Health. He concluded the speech with “We must be the generation to break down the bricks of poverty and we must be the generation to implement the universal health coverage now ".
In the late evening attended a side event organized by Global Health Council on "The Changing Landscape of Global Health: Charting a course for the Global Health Community in the post 2015 era". Speakers spoke about the requirement of multilateral partnership such as public, private and NGO partnership and the partnership need to be accountable and transparent.

Day 01 - WHO World Health Assembly

I woke up with a doubtful mind on cloudy and freezy Monday morning and was telling my friend who was from Mexico "Will we get the badges to enter UN Headquarters for WHA?" ,but fortunately when we were walking towards WHO HQs we got to know that we were able to get the delegation badges as a part of International Federation of Medical Students Associations delegation. It was a great pleasure to be in the high level opening ceremony of the 66th World Health Assembly commenced in Geneva on 20th of May 2012 at 10am. The high level panel began with electing the new president from Japan to the 66th World Health Assembly and followed by appointing vice presidents and chairmen’s of main committees.

Opening of High Level Segment

High Level Plenary

DG of WHO Speaks at WHA

In the afternoon, I attended a side event on public private partnership for addressing NCDs: food labeling and other innovative instruments for involving the private sector and making healthy choice easier. Organized by the delegation of Netherlands in collaboration with the delegations of Singapore and Canada
The speakers stressed that
- The 66th WHA is crucially important for NCDs resolutions,
- Private sectors, specially food processing industries can work on reformulation in reducing suger contents, reducing saturated fat, salt, enhancing fiber content, food labeling and promoting healthy diet.
- NCD Action plan will be intensely negotiated and finalized in this WHA.
One of the Singaporean speaker stressed that the obesity has become one of the most dietary challenge in Singapore, where obesity has risen up to 12% of Singaporean population. In 2011 Singapore implemented a strategic healthier Hawked Program in one of the hawker area which is a 3P engagement program interlinking Private, Public and People into a platform. By now they have reached 10% of hawker stalls to promote healthy food as well use healthy ingredients.

Side Event

In the late afternoon, attended the 2nd plenary meeting of WHA and opening remarks by Dr. Margret, Director General of WHO, she stressed more on newly revolving influenza viruses, post 2015 framework, HIV retrovirus therapy, vaccination - especially on polio eradication. She ended up with "Its not going to be easy to eradicate non communicable diseases".


Later on first meeting of the Committee A took place, the committee focused on agenda item 13, on communicable diseases; member states shared their opinions on the proposed draft on NCD resolution.
In the late evening IFMSA and World Medical Organization jointly organized the closing ceremony on Pre-WHA for youth followed by dinner.

first meeting of the Committee A

As a youth representative for the Pre-World Health Assembly

I was excited to attend Youth Pre-World Health Assembly (Pre-WHA), which took place from May 16th-20th, 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Youth Pre-World Health assembly aimed to gather 30 students and young people from around the world in a three-day workshop on global health diplomacy and global health governance. The aims of this conference are to educate and empower future leaders in health with enhanced knowledge and understanding of global health issues.

Furthermore, the event aims to develop a streamlined plan of action for youth participation at the World Health Assembly. Participants worked in small working groups to develop a comprehensive plan of action for the World Health Assembly in order to create a more effective and meaningful youth participation at the World Health Assembly. Leading experts from World Health Organization (WHO), National Member States and Non-Governmental Organizations was invited to give lectures to participants on selected topics and provided feedback on the youth strategy for the World Health Assembly. Key focus areas was Social Determinants of Health, Post 2015 Millennium Development Goals, Consultative Expert Working Group (CEWG), Human Resources for Health and, Reproductive and Adolescent Health.

Outcomes of the Event

• Foster participants with better understanding of global health diplomacy and global health governance.
• Development of skills for advocacy, health care leadership, and policy engagement towards action on social determinants of health to reduce health inequities
• Foster of a sense of community amongst youth coming from a variety of different, social, cultural and geographic backgrounds.
• Increase visibility and impact of youth participation and collaboration at the World Health Assembly.
• Streamline and develop a concrete youth strategy towards the World Health Assembly, specifically:
• Develop joint plan of action for the Pre-World Health assembly with respect to statements and interventions and advocacy & lobbying aims.
• Develop and execute a joint youth social media strategy
• Develop a long-term vision and strategy for future joint youth strategies in global health