Improved access to quality essential health services irrespective of gender, age or disability

The Secretariat will support countries to: develop, implement and monitor policies and strategies to reduce the burden of and eliminate or eradicate communicable and noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions; conduct dialogues to identify public health priorities and develop policies to deliver condition- and disease-specific service coverage and strengthen domestic funding; translate research into policy, practice and feedback; adapt norms and standards for condition- and disease-specific service coverage to inform implementation decisions and integrate best practices and recommendations by, for example, establishing communities of practice; strengthen interlinkages such as those between health services for HIV and tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, noncommunicable diseases and other sexually transmitted infections (e.g. human papillomavirus) in order to improve access for those most vulnerable and at risk; strengthen the integration of health services for communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions in primary health care and universal health care essential packages; develop service continuity plans that are linked to advocacy for funding from donors for preparedness related to communicable diseases and noncommunicable diseases; assess preparedness and readiness and develop national preparedness and response plans related to communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases and mental health and psychosocial support, especially in fragile, conflict and vulnerable settings; establish multi-partner, in-country programme performance and accountability frameworks for priority-setting, early identification and resolution of bottlenecks and decision-making through joint policy dialogues; enhance surveillance systems to identify health needs, detect outbreaks and monitor the impact of interventions, and progress towards control, elimination and eradication; strengthen the collection, analysis and use of routine programme data (including research, scorecards, dashboards and disease mapping) to support disease-specific interventions that improve responses; cooperate with other countries and coordinate across borders; and strengthen community-led and community-based health systems, including through co-creation with people living with or affected by specific diseases or impairments, in order to achieve person-centred care.