World leaders unite to embed social participation in healthcare systems

For the first time in the World Health Organization’s 76-year history, world leaders have unanimously committed to putting social participation – people, communities and civil society – at the heart of health decision-making processes.

This milestone pledge marks an important step forward in creating a healthy world, experts say The BMJ today, and they urge everyone to exercise their right to influence the decisions that affect their health and well-being.

Global challenges such as access to care, climate change, rising social inequality, demographic changes and workforce shortages are overwhelming our healthcare systems, they explain. But if the public is empowered to fully cooperate in health care, the resources, intelligence and capabilities of our health care systems will increase exponentially.

The WHO resolution marks an important step forward in three respects.

First, it outlines clear government responsibilities to ensure that social participation is adequately funded and designed in ways that influence health-related policy and systems change.

Second, the resolution makes social participation a core function within healthcare systems, rather than a series of ad hoc initiatives. This global perspective is important to reshape healthcare systems, nurture long-term trusting relationships with communities and build alliances across health sectors.

Third, it provides powerful mechanisms to influence governments. Having supported the resolution, governments have a political imperative to take action and must demonstrate progress every two years between now and 2030.

Personal experience and knowledge, especially that of people who have the most difficulty accessing healthcare, are crucial in helping us design better and more inclusive healthcare systems, they write. To ensure the resolution gains support, we need strong, visible and shared leadership from civil society and governments, they added.

Finally, they say that health issues transcend national borders and that all countries must participate to achieve a healthy world: ‘We must share success stories, challenges and solutions; learning from people around the world; gaining understanding from our diversity; build coalitions and ensure the next generation of leaders has the passion and expertise to ensure no one is left behind.”

They conclude: “The movement for social participation is global, but the power to act is locally rooted in the alliances we forge with each other.”