• The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy and threatened to undo decades of progress made in health care
• Health: A Political Choice – Act Now, Together is the latest in a series of titles produced in collaboration with the World Health Organization. It calls on key actors to unite in their response to the pandemic and other imminent and long-term threats
• The publication will launch during the World Health Summit, on 25–27 October – which, this year, will take place as a fully digital, interactive conference with a free-to-view programme – and coincides with the 75th anniversary of the United Nation General Assembly

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented disruption and challenges to the global economy and populations worldwide. It has highlighted and widened the existing gaps in Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and laid bare the pressing need for high-quality essential health services for all – without a price tag.

Health: A Political Choice – Act Now, Together, which launches during this year’s virtual World Health Summit on 25–27 October, and coincides with the 75th anniversary of the UN General Assembly, calls on world leaders and politicians to unite in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other imminent and long-term threats to population health and the global economy. It is the latest in a series of titles produced in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the first of which – Health: A Political Choice – called for UHC.

This year’s edition features another prestigious line-up of authors, including Amina J. Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the UN, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO and president of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa.

Calling for coordinated action in response to COVID-19 and on other pressing health-related issues, the publication focuses on five key areas:

1. Inclusive economics, defined by a new social contract and the pursuit of progress for all
2. The fundamental requirements for a healthy life and equitable health care
3. Equitable investments and how to make UHC a reality
4. Health in the digital age and how technology can help reshape the human rights agenda
5. The long-term outlook on global health

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said: “It has never been clearer that health is a political and economic choice. In the past 20 years, countries have invested heavily in preparing for terrorist attacks, but relatively little in preparing for the attack of a virus – which, as the COVID-19 pandemic has proven, can be far more deadly, disruptive and costly.”

“This will not be the last pandemic. But when the next one comes, the world must be ready. Part of every country’s commitment to build back better must therefore be to public health, as an investment in a healthier and safer future.”

Health: A Political Choice – Act Now, Together is an official publication of the Global Governance Project produced in collaboration with the World Health Organization. The Global Governance Project is a joint initiative between GT Media Group, a London-based publishing company, the Global Governance Program based at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, and the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

View Health: A Political Choice – Act Now, Together online at https://bit.ly/HAPC2020

The Global Governance Project on Twitter: @GloGovProj

The Global Governance Project’s press release: World Leaders Unite in Their Response to COVID-19