Expert group meeting on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages
16 October 2024 to 17 October 2024
Overview
The special theme of the 58th session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), taking place in April 2025, is “Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages”. As part of the substantive preparations for the annual session, the Population Division of UN DESA will convene an expert group meeting on 16 and 17 October 2024 to discuss the special theme. The meeting will review the latest evidence and analyses in relation to the theme, drawing from the experience of countries in all regions.
Since the founding of the United Nations, health has been recognized as a fundamental right of every human being. The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health was first articulated in the 1946 Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO), whose preamble defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. This right was further reaffirmed in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in many international and regional human rights treaties.
The Programme of Action adopted by Governments at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo, Egypt in 1994, also recognizes that everyone has the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health and calls for increasing the availability and affordability of health-care services to provide access to basic health care for all. It also calls for increased investments in health infrastructure, the training of health-care personnel, and the integration of health policies with broader development strategies. In addition, the Programme of Action identified a series of quantitative health-related goals, including the reduction of infant, child and maternal mortality and the provision of universal access to a full range of reproductive health services, such as family planning.
The comprehensive health-related goals identified in the ICPD were integrated and further elaborated in the , including as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 3, "Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages", includes 13 targets covering health topics ranging from reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) to universal health coverage and measures to strengthen health systems. Other underlying determinants of health that are addressed in the SDGs include ensuring access to education, decent work, nutritious and sufficient food, and safe and sanitary living environments, as well as ending poverty and hunger and promoting gender equality and just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
Documents
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Wednesday, 16 October 2024 EDT (New York time) |
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8:00 - 8:30 am |
Opening remarks
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| 8:30 – 9:00 am |
I. How are population trends likely to shape health and well-being going forward?
Q&A |
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9:00 – 10:30 am |
II. Promoting health and well-being for all across the life course: selected topics o Moderator: Alessio Cangiano, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
Q&A |
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10:30 – 10:45 am |
Break
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10:45 am – 12:15 pm |
III. Accelerating progress towards the target of Universal Health Coverage and closing gaps in access to quality essential health-care services o Moderator: Simone Cecchini, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Q&A
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12:15 – 1:00 pm |
Interactive discussion: Main takeaways from the first day o Moderator: Vladimíra Kantorová, Population Division, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
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Thursday, 17 October 2024 EDT (New York time) |
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8:00 – 9:30 am |
IV. Strengthening the sustainability of health systems in countries confronting a variety of demographic situations and prospects o Moderator: Sabine Henning, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
Q&A |
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9:30 – 11:00 am |
V. Enhancing the preparedness and resilience of health systems in the face of health emergencies, pandemics, conflicts, natural disasters and climate change o Moderator: Werner Obermeyer, World Health Organization (WHO).
Q&A |
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11:00 – 11:15 am |
Break
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11:15 am – 12:45 pm |
Interactive discussion: Policy priorities for achieving healthy lives for all o Moderator: Cheryl Sawyer, Population Division, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Q&A |
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12:45 – 1:00 pm |
Closing remarks |