Space and Global Health

A/RES/77/120View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 45 International cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, published in 2022.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Programme 5	Peaceful uses of outer space	38

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Programme 5	Peaceful uses of outer space	38	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

What subjects does this mandate have?

5 subjects

Capacity Building Health International Cooperation Space Sciences Space Technology

What’s in this document?

18 operative paragraphs

Encourages United Nations entities, intergovernmental organizations, Governments and the private sector to pursue effective coordination in all key space activities relevant to global health;

Encourages formalized cooperation between health authorities and space authorities at the domestic level, and welcomes existing cross-sectoral networks that foster the exchange of ideas between the space and health sectors;

Encourages Member States to establish a policy-enabled environment and governance mechanisms, with due consideration of legal and ethical issues, for removing challenges to facilitating the effective use of space-based technologies in support of global health, including telemedicine solutions and other emerging technologies;

Also encourages Member States to promote open data-sharing policies and participatory approaches to developing and improving access to all geospatial information relevant to global health, including remote sensing and Earth observation data, whenever possible;

Further encourages Member States to enable organizational and technical interoperability and promote research and innovation activities to facilitate the development and implementation of space-based science and technology in the health sector;

Urges United Nations entities and intergovernmental organizations to support the wider development of, equitable access to and application of space solutions for global health, public health, including epidemics and pandemics, emergencies that may have an impact on health, and the individual health needs of Member States, and encourages the implementation of a broader range of space solutions for sustainable development, including public-private partnerships;

Encourages Member States and participating entities to advance their efforts related to the geotagging of all assets relevant to health systems, including health information systems, and to make them available to further the attainment of health goals;

Encourages Member States to recognize the relevance of access to the space environment and space analogues⁶ for health and life sciences research and development, especially in the area of astronaut health, for social and economic benefits on Earth;

⁶Space analogues include parabolic flights, bed rest studies and expeditions to Antarctica and other isolated, confined and extreme environments that simulate the space environment on Earth.

Also encourages Member States to actively promote international cooperation in the field of space medicine on the basis of equal opportunities for all interested participants and in the interests of the further exploration of outer space by humankind, and further scientific and technological development and applications in the interests of global health;

Further encourages Member States to conduct appropriate drills and exercises to benchmark their operational preparedness and response capacities and capabilities for the appropriate use of space technologies in responding to global health events;

Welcomes the establishment of a dedicated, cooperative, globally accessible, multifaceted platform based in Geneva to promote effective collaboration on space and global health issues among Member States, United Nations entities, other international organizations and relevant actors;

Emphasizes that all key activities, reference documents and plans relevant to space for global health carried out or prepared by United Nations entities should be monitored and compiled on an annual basis, including those of the World Health Organization, other international organizations and States members of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, as well as, to the extent possible, non-governmental organizations and other non-governmental actors, and also emphasizes that the resulting annual compilation of activities should serve as a reference to identify and discuss gaps and opportunities and should be shared broadly in an effort to raise awareness and promote cooperation among relevant actors in this domain;

Recognizes the importance of analysing and assessing the roles and interests of current actors in the domain of space and global health, with the aim of promoting synergy, complementarity, cooperation and coordination among all actors;

Emphasizes the need to enhance, in an equitable and sustainable manner, intersectoral coordination and cooperation for effective international, regional, national and subnational capacity-building activities relevant to the application of space science and technology in the field of global health;

Encourages Member States to engage learning institutions and other capacity-building mechanisms in motivating young health professionals, at an early stage, to acquire space-related skills and abilities;

Agrees to promote capacity-building events, to be organized by United Nations entities and other relevant actors, with the objective of further promoting awareness of and engagement with regard to the important contribution of space science and technology among actors applying One Health approaches, with a view to increasing the number of organizations and other actors in the health domain that are actively engaged in using space science and technology;

Requests the Office for Outer Space Affairs to strengthen, within existing resources, capacity-building and networking in Africa, Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean, through regional technical cooperation projects, and to support field projects for strengthening collaboration between the space and global health sectors as an efficient strategy for making better use of space science and technology for access to global health for beneficiary States and taking better advantage of opportunities offered by bilateral or multilateral collaboration;

Encourages Member States to foster linkages between academia, national experts, telecommunications regulatory authorities and science and technology authorities with a view to improving access to and the use of digital technologies and information systems in health.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?