Global Health and Foreign Policy : Accelerating the Fight Against Diseases Driven by Social Determinants of Health

A/RES/80/265View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 127 Global health and foreign policy, published in 2026.

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 subjects

What’s in this document?

19 operative paragraphs

Calls upon Member States to strengthen governance for health and development, through transparent and inclusive decision-making processes, comprehensive research- and evidence-based policy and action, integrating the health-in-all policies approach and enhancing accountability for the impact of all policies on health and health equity, while encouraging greater collaboration and alignment among all relevant stakeholders, in accordance with the principles of system-wide coherence, effectiveness and sustainability, to accelerate progress towards health-related Sustainable Development Goals;

Encourages Member States to strengthen and implement national policies that integrate health equity considerations across all sectors, including social protection, nutrition, sanitation and education, with a particular focus on addressing the structural causes of diseases driven by social determinants of health and improving daily living conditions for all, especially all those in vulnerable situations, including within productive and working environments and through the adoption of measures to address barriers related to social determinants of health, including those that hinder the attainment of gender equality and women’s empowerment, while ensuring access to essential services throughout the life course;

Urges Member States to strengthen health systems towards the provision of equitable universal health coverage and promote access to high quality, promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative gender-responsive health services throughout the life cycle, with a particular focus on comprehensive and integrated primary healthcare;

Also urges Member States to scale up measures to promote and improve mental health and well-being as an essential component of universal health coverage, including by addressing the determinants that influence mental health, brain health, neurological conditions, substance abuse and suicide, and by developing comprehensive and integrated services, including community-based services, to promote mental health and well-being, while fully respecting human rights, taking into account the World Health Organization comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030;

Further urges Member States to strengthen the capacity of health systems for monitoring and minimizing the public health impacts of climate change through adequate preventive measures, preparedness, timely response and effective management of natural disasters, and to develop and integrate health measures into climate change adaptation policies and plans as appropriate; and to implement, where relevant, the global action plan on climate change and health (2025–2028) adopted by the World Health Assembly in decision 78(27);

Urges Member States to ensure, by 2030, universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, including for family planning, information and education and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes, and ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights as agreed in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development¹⁸ and the Beijing Platform for Action,¹⁹ and the outcome documents of their review conferences;

¹⁸Report of the International Conference on Population and Development, Cairo, 5–13 September 1994 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.95.XIII.18), chap. I, resolution 1, annex.

¹⁹Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4–15 September 1995 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.96.IV.13), chap. I, resolution 1, annex II.

Also urges Member States to ensure safe, timely and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel and medical personnel responding to pandemics and other health emergencies, as well as their means of transport, supplies and equipment, and to support, facilitate and enable transportation and logistical supply lines, in order to allow such personnel to efficiently and safely perform their task of assisting affected populations, and in this regard also reaffirms the need to take the necessary measures to respect and protect such personnel, hospitals and other medical facilities consistent with international humanitarian law;

Calls upon Member States, international organizations and other relevant stakeholders to increase, mobilize and optimize both domestic and international financial resources and investments to combat diseases driven by social determinants of health in order to achieve optimal health outcomes for all, including to support health promotion, prevention, early intervention and community-based responses, to achieve universal health coverage and to ensure equitable access to essential quality, safe, effective and affordable medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and health technologies for all, including the promotion of generic medicine initiatives to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, as appropriate, particularly in support of developing countries, in the spirit of global partnership and solidarity;

Encourages Member States to foster and strengthen local and regional production capacities for health products and North-South and South-South cooperation in showcasing initiatives, and facilitating the transfer of technology on mutually agreed terms for integrated action on health inequities, in line with national priorities and needs, including on health services and pharmaceutical production, as appropriate, including through the promotion of sustainable regional supply chains and South-South and triangular cooperation;

Also encourages Member States to promote gender-responsive financing and budgeting approaches in health and social protection, involving measures to reduce the disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work and financial burdens faced by women and girls, including those associated with direct health expenditures;

Calls upon Member States, in partnership with other relevant stakeholders, including international and regional organizations, non‑governmental organizations, academia, the scientific community and the private sector, to consider scaling up research and knowledge dissemination on the correlations between health, notably its economic and social determinants, and nutrition and food systems to generate evidence and guidance on effective nutrition programmes and policies, and notes with appreciation that the World Health Organization Academy provides additional resources to achieve these goals;

Urges Member States to promote food security and food safety, adequate nutrition, including through breastfeeding, and sustainable, resilient and diverse nutrition-sensitive food systems as central elements for healthier populations and as a fundamental tool to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, aiming at a world free from malnutrition in all its forms, where all people throughout their life course and at all times have access to adequate food and enjoy affordable, balanced and healthy and, where possible, diversified diets for an active and healthy life;

Calls upon Member States to take measures to significantly reduce maternal, perinatal, neonatal, infant and child mortality and morbidity and increase access to quality healthcare services for newborns, infants and children, as well as all women before, during and after pregnancy and childbirth, including through providing antenatal and postnatal care, sufficient numbers of skilled birth attendants and adequately supplied birthing facilities;

Encourages Member States, in partnership with other relevant stakeholders, including international and regional organizations and academia, to establish, strengthen and maintain monitoring systems that provide disaggregated data to assess inequities in health outcomes, both physical and mental, as well as in allocations and use of resources, and to promote research on the relationships between social determinants and equitable health outcomes with a particular focus on the evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at combating diseases driven by social determinants of health, in particular through addressing social determinants of health, and to share good practices and methodologies to support data-driven policy decisions;

Urges Member States to enhance their national health information systems and research capacities to systematically collect and analyse, taking into account national contexts, disaggregated data to effectively monitor health inequities and measure the impact of policies and interventions on diseases driven by social determinants of health, and to promote regional cooperation and technical exchanges to build analytical capacities in developing countries;

Encourages Member States to systematically share relevant evidence and trends among different sectors to inform policy and action, and to assess the impacts of policies on health and other societal goals, taking these into account in policymaking to ensure alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals and maximize their impact on persons in vulnerable situations affected by diseases driven by social determinants of health;

Urges Member States to implement, strengthen and sustain regular, meaningful and inclusive social participation in health-related decisions across the system as appropriate, taking into consideration national context and priorities;

Encourages Member States to strengthen public communication, community engagement strategies and digital literacy, including through leveraging trained community health workers to foster community resilience and health literacy, to address, backed by scientific evidence, misinformation and disinformation related to health, including on disease prevention, health promotion, treatment and immunization, while respecting human rights, and recognizing that inaccurate information can undermine trust in health systems, lead to treatment refusal and vaccine hesitancy, and hinder efforts to promote health equity and the achievement of universal health coverage;

Requests the Secretary-General, in close collaboration with the Director General of the World Health Organization as well as with relevant international organizations, to report to the General Assembly at its eighty-first session, under the item entitled “Global health and foreign policy”, on international cooperation and multilateral efforts to accelerate the fight against diseases driven by social determinants of health and promote equity in health for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,²⁰ with particular attention to progress made in strengthening intersectoral public policies, enhancing international cooperation and resource mobilization, and establishing effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

²⁰Resolution 70/1.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

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