Progress on UHC is inextricably linked to progress tackling NCDs, said NCD Alliance and other organisations in a statement to the Regional Committee Meeting of WHO's Southeast Asia region.

Launched on Human Rights Day, Waiting for Health Project is a new photo series that shares the faces and stories of some of the millions of people still waiting for health.

Three years ago, on 12 December 2012, the United Nations unanimously endorsed a resolution urging governments to ensure universal access to quality health care without financial hardship. Now the United Nations has included universal health coverage in the new Sustainable Development Goals. 

A global coalition of 267 economists representing 44 countries is calling on policymakers to prioritise universal health coverage as an essential pillar of economic development.

Lack of access and high cost of care, essential medicines and technologies increases morbidity and mortality, and can force people and families into poverty due to disability and out-of-pocket expenses.

WHO is urging countries to move towards universal health coverage (UHC) and to scale up international investment in catalytic development funding. The call comes as world leaders convene in Ethiopia, for the Third UN Financing for Development Conference, to discuss ways to pay for the new Sustainable Development Goals, to be launched in New York in September 2015.