Everyone, everywhere — Universal health coverage

He thus urged all to join WHO to ensure every, everywhere, gets the health services they need.

Dr Aceng singled out the Community Health Extension Workers strategy yet to be implemented but that has been well planned to contribute significantly to UHC.

Since then, the United Nations chief said, the world has made progress in health care with global life expectancy expanding by 23, the eradication of smallpox and polio on its way out.

In addition, the country has a health sector monitoring and supervision framework, and an elaborate and well spread health infrastructure at all levels of national and local government administration. People were also advised to nominate at least 3 people to take part in the initiative and spread the word.

"Universal" in UHC means "for all", without discrimination, leaving no one behind. He recalled the founding principle of the WHO - "the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being".

Here in Malawi, World Health Day is an opportunity of the Ministry for Health and development partners to draw nationwide attention to a subject of major importance to global health.

What World Health Day can do? They incur so-called "catastrophic expenditures".

Meanwhile, the global "health economy" is growing faster than the global economy.

Health services must be planned around the needs of the people, she said, highlighting that by 2020 more of the Region's population will be over 60 than under-five.

World Health Day will shine a spotlight on the need for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) - and the advantages it can bring.

"Good health is the most precious thing anyone can have", said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General".

However, Guterres noted that people around the world still lack vital health services.

WHO says the UHC includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care. "A flagship programme geared towards providing integrated and holistic support to countries through implementation support, a regional learning programme for UHC is now available", it says. It encompasses all components of the health system: systems and healthcare providers that deliver health services to people, health facilities and communications networks, health technologies, information systems, quality assurance mechanisms and governance and legislation.