2020 was a devastating year for global health. A previously unknown virus raced around the world, rapidly emerging as one of its top killers, laying bare the inadequacies of health systems.
Today, health services in all regions are struggling to both tackle COVID-19, and provide people with vital care.
In another blow, the pandemic threatens to set back hard-won global health progress achieved over the past two decades – in fighting infectious diseases, for example, and improving maternal and child health.
So in 2021, countries around the world will need to continue battle COVID-19 (albeit with the knowledge that effective tools are evolving).
Here are 10 ways the WHO is recommending to countries:
1. Build global solidarity for worldwide health security
WHO will work with countries to improve their own preparedness for pandemics and health emergencies. But for this to be effective, WHO says it will ensure that countries work together. Above all, this pandemic has shown us over and again, that no one is safe until everyone is safe.
2. Speedy access to COVID-19 tests, medicines and vaccines
A top priority in 2021 will be to continue the WHO work across the four pillars of the ACT-Accelerator, to achieve equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, tests, and treatments and to ensure that health systems are strong enough to deliver them. Getting effective tools to everyone who needs them will be key to ending this first, acute phase of the pandemic.
3. Advance health for all
One of the clearest lessons the pandemic has taught us is the consequences of neglecting our health systems. In 2021 WHO will work across all three levels of the Organization and with partners worldwide to help countries strengthen systems so that they can respond to COVID-19 and deliver all the essential health services required to keep people of all ages healthy – close to home and without falling into poverty.
4. Tackling health inequities
The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the deep disparities that persist between and within countries, some of which are being exacerbated and risk widening even further.
In 2021 we will draw on the latest WHO data and build on international commitments (and existing work) to advance universal health coverage and address the broader determinants of health. We will work with countries to monitor and address health inequities related to critical issues such as income, gender, ethnicity, living in remote rural areas or disadvantaged urban areas, education, occupation/employment conditions, and disability.
5. Provide global leadership on science and data
WHO will monitor and evaluate the latest scientific developments around COVID-19 and beyond, identifying opportunities to harness those advances to improve global health. We will uphold and strengthen the excellence, relevance and efficacy of our own core technical functions, to provide the world with the best evidence-based recommendations for public health on issues ranging from Alzheimers to Zika.
6. Revitalize efforts to tackle communicable diseases
In recent decades, WHO and partners have worked resolutely to end the scourge of polio, HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and to avert epidemics of diseases like measles and yellow fever. COVID-19 set back much of this work in 2020. So in 2021 we will help countries get vaccines for polio and other diseases to the people who missed out during the pandemic. As part of this push, we will work to improve access to the HPV vaccine as part of the new global effort to end cervical cancer we launched in 2020.
7. Combat drug resistance
Global efforts to end infectious diseases will only succeed if we have effective medicines to treat them. So it will be vital to build on the work we do with our One Health partners — the Food and Agricultural Organization and World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) — and with stakeholders across all sectors to preserve antimicrobials.
8. Prevent and treat NCDs and mental health conditions
WHO’s latest Global Health Estimates revealed that noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) were responsible for 7 of the top 10 causes of death in 2019. In 2020 we saw how particularly vulnerable people with NCDs are to COVID-19, and how vital it is to ensure that that screening and treatment programmes for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease are accessible to all who need them when they need them. This will be a major focus in 2021, along with a new Global Diabetes Compact, and a campaign to help 100 million people quit tobacco.
9. Build back better
COVID-19 has been a pivotal moment in many ways, and offers a unique opportunity to build back a better, greener, healthier world. Our Manifesto for a Healthy Recovery from COVID-19, with its goals of addressing climate change and health, reducing air pollution and improving air quality, can play a major role in making this happen.
10. Act in solidarity
One of the key principles WHO has emphasized throughout the fight against COVID-19 is the need to demonstrate greater solidarity – between nations, institutions, communities and individuals, closing the cracks in our defences on which the virus thrives.
