Welcome everyone to the launch event of the WHO Handbook on Social Participation for Universal Health Coverage.

Hi colleagues @nadirasamha United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Pharmaceutical Services Officer Essential Drugs and Medicines

Helo to us.

Thanks Dr Tedros@ WHO

Dear all, please find the link to the WHO Handbook on Social Participation for Universal Health Coverage: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240027794

Congratulations to Dheepa, Kira and All who participated in the development of this Handbook! We look forward to Reading it here in Brazil!

Thank you for all the efforts.

Hi everyone! Kamaliah from Malaysia. Thanks so much for the link.

Counterbalancing the engrained powers… Yes!! As somebody who has witnessed the long birth of this handbook i really wish to compliment the team and related working groups on careful and considerate work. The book has ‘grown’ in depth as a result. Really Chapeau!

How do we avoid engagement fatigue with people with lived experience? Do you have any suggestions of how to facilitate inclusive and ethical meaningful engagement in a virtual space when some may not have digital literacy or internet connectivity?

How does WHO ensure that all units within the organization embrace the principles of social participation provided in this fantastic handbook. What remedies exist where WHO staffers violate these principles?

Looks like a fantastic piece of work - very well done to the team and thanks Dheepa for a great presentation!

Here again the link to the WHO Handbook on Social Participation for Universal Health Coverage: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240027794

One of the process solutions we developed here in Brazil is promotion of social sciences, public health and community health research/publication about impact, atitudes and perceptions of all who hold an interest in a specific theme - mainly because it better informs deliberation when these occur, whether for coverage decision-making, policy and R&D. Would you consider a future 'Chapter 8' on this perspective?

Hi Ravi!

Please type your questions in the Q&A box. Thank you.

Great panel!

Bolajoko: A one-Million question. In a dialogue meeting with the WHO DG, in October last year, we framed it as follows: "In its own fields of work and related institutional processes and arenas, WHO to consistently deal with civil society engagement as a matter of social participation and accountability" This is not at all self-evident, despite the Secretariat's promotion of civic space at national level.See here http://g2h2.org/posts/socialaccountability/

The UHC2030 Civil Society Engagement Mechanism organized an event on social participation last week, in collaboration with NCD Alliance, Communities at the Heart of UHC, Global Health Council, IFRC, Save the Children and UNAIDS. Social Participation Works: Engaging those left behind to drive UHC. Summary and recording here: https://csemonline.net/social-participation-works-engaging-those-left-behind-to-drive-uhc/

• Overall, the discussion stressed the need for social participation to achieve equity and noted that it is not only about having a seat at the table but ensuring that civil society is adequately resourced and has the information to contribute effectively to decision-making.

The WHO GCM NCDs has organised consultation for the meaningful involvement of people living with NCDs. We are currently creating a framework for this engagement. It would be great to knowledge share!

Important points on reporting and governance form Joy.

Joy: Government as servants of the people…. take ten seconds to let that sink in and then ponder on where that is happening…

...and then repeat it five times.

...and think about how this could/should be translated to the global governance Level and WHO.

I am afraid not even 100x will do…

Building on the discussion, and not having had time to review the WHO handbook, a key message that came out of the New Zealand Shaping Health case study - https://www.shapinghealth.org - was that it is not about the need for two-way participatory processes and community participation goes without saying.

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240027794

Yogan, here is the link to the handbook

Some resources on Australian Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28559679/ https://www.naccho.org.au/

strengthening the Australian Governments accountability on Aboriginal affairs has been an ongoing process for many years. Within Australia Indigenous people should be the leaders when speaking on our models of care and our communities but still we don't have a voice @IndigenousNCDs

https://www.indigenousncds.org/ some additional resources from Australia

PHM has a Building a Movement for Health handbook which you can download here https://phmovement.org/building-a-movement-for-health/

Here is the link on our partnership with Brazil's MoH HTA team to improve social participation in coverage decision-making to our UHC health system Sistema Unico de Saude: https://aagts.brasilia.fiocruz.br/?page_id=12

Thanks, Sharmila! The lessons from Brazil are really important to this debate.

Is there any recording of this event?

Thank you for answering my quetion

Check out the PHM for people centred movement https://phmovement.org/about-3/

Thank you Ravi and Joy for answers to Jenni’s question - great question Jenni, thank you

Government = duty bearerPeople = right holderDo not confuse proper instruments for social accountability with "multistakeholder" arrangements. We talk about legistlation, norms, Regulation, and national strategies and policies set up by the governance together with the people and not for people.

Our consultation with the people living with noncommunicable disease and their meaningful involvement in co-design of policies and programmes – http://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/340737

Thanks to Fran for PHM references!

Thanks to the WHO for the Handbook.Let us digest and debate it further.

Thanks Ravi: people's health movement has been an inspiration in many ways to our developments all around Brazil!

Thanks Thomas for the reminders about duty bearers and rights holders. It is so important to underline the need for participation to become second nature and integral to how policies are developed, implemented, monitored and evaluated with an eye to equitable and inclusive processes.

WHO and other policy makers must have a mechanism for reconciling inputs from the conventional expert consultation and civil society participation. The role of cost-effectiveness analysis, systematic review of literature, etc must be balanced with the lived experiences of target beneficiaries elicited through constructive social participation. Not everything that counts can be counted.

@Sarah: ‘second nature’ ?? Or ‘first nature’ (sorry, i know, bad english but still…

MMI hosted policy dialogue on Tuesday, 15 June 2021, 14-16 hrs CEST. Promote civic space at the WHO and other UN bodies and agencies…and defend democratic multilateralism. Announcement here https://www.medicusmundi.org/policydialogues2021/

@Godelieve (hello!) yes probably first nature or a normal part of how they do national health planning and national policy making noting Katja’s comments that this is the specific focus of the Handbook.

I really agree with the changes in leadership. It’s so difficult to develop relationships in governments when they are changing staffing every 12 months

Social participation is mostly talked of as the community participating in existing programs/schemes, but they are not expected to question or critique the relevance or design of the programs themselves. But in order to be truly transformative, social participation must provide the opportunity for people to reject programs that don't work for them or have adverse consequences. Unfortunately when people start to question the government, they face various forms of repression. We have seen this in struggles against privatisation of health services in India. 

@Jem Gorospe: Yes it is, see here:https://gh.bmj.com/content/4/Suppl_7/e001769 and here: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/260464

@Jem Gorospe -- documentation of Thai National Health Assembly -- see links above

thank you!

I fully agree with Fran Baum on the 'trust, reciprocity' compound of the 'solidaristic' atitude - which you can also find in much detail in the work that Barbara Prainsack has been developing since 2011 here: https://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/publications/solidarity

Great comment about the repression which happens in some countries when civil society questions the existing priorities - the pandemic appears to have increased the crack down on civil society in an increasing number of countries

more recente work: https://politikwissenschaft.univie.ac.at/en/research/main-areas-of-research/centre-for-the-study-of-contemporary-solidarity-cescos/

CAN WE HAVE ONE SCREEN SHORT WITH KATJA AND KIRA ALSO VISIBLE?

SCREEN SHOT

IF NOT, ALSO A BIG THANKS TO THE OTHER TWO CHIEF AUTHORS/DRIVERS OF THIS HANDBOOK

Thank you for a thought-provoking discussion

Congratulations to team who developed the handbook, great start. Many thanks to all the panelists for their insights.

Dheepa, thanks for response.

Thanks for the comments from all. I really like Sharmila Sousa's contributions from Fiocrus/Brazil and Danny Gotto's point about traditional forms of dialogue.

Thomas, thanks for the link to WHO efforts for internal engagements.

Thank you for a very interesting discussion.

Excellent discussion. Looking forward to seeing this in other languages (French, Spanish) so we can disseminate in many countries.

Handbook link again: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240027794

Encouraging civil society activists in global health governance to register for the 15 June discussion. Look at the MMI website for information.

Thank you for joining!

Thanks Thomas for the MMI policy dialogue link

Congratulations to the team on the handbook and the IndigenousNCDs movement would be happy to provide our knowledge and expertise in anyway.

Thank you

Thank you so much for this handbook and for addressing this critical issue for global health and UHC