KEY 05 - Partnership for the Goals - World Health Summit 2020

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, our shared vision for the future, will require cooperation across borders, sectors, and generations. Due to COVID-19 we are witnessing a roll back in goal achievement – related to health and to many social determinants and especially for women and children. Now we need collective action and solidarity more than ever, and a clear commitment to global common goods. This is what the United Nations (UN) stands for. New ground-breaking partnerships – such as COVAX and the ACT-Accelerator are being developed and can serve as examples that it can be done.

The UN General Assembly 75 has seen extraordinary commitments expressed by many leaders for SDG achievement and global health. The warnings by the UN Secretary General and the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the need to support for global cooperation and multilateralism must be heeded at a time when in many countries public trust in traditional institutions is in decline and human rights are disregarded. As relations between countries come under strain, dialogue and action on global issues—nearly all of which directly and indirectly affect health—could not be more urgent. How do we support the UN in its aim to build a global vision of 2045 (its centenary) and support enhanced international cooperation to realize that vision.