?Leave no one behind? approach focused on equity, gender and human rights progressively incorporated and monitored The Secretariat will exercise a leadership role in health at the global, regional and national levels through evidence-based policy advocacy and technical collaboration to promote the systematic integration of gender-responsive, equity-oriented and human rights-based approaches in national health policies, legislation and programmes in order to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. This will include improved coordination and collaboration with relevant partners through the United Nations system, as well as regional and country level inter-agency mechanisms and processes.
The Secretariat will strengthen WHO?s normative role by ensuring that programmes and global public health goods are gender-responsive and human rights-based in order to ascertain who is being left behind, including through the identification of gender-related differences, discriminatory practices or barriers to effective coverage of health services. The Secretariat will intensify this work with enhanced technical support based on a more systematic application of evidence-based approaches, tools and methods and practical demonstration of what works to address gender, equity and human rights in health policies and programmes.
The Secretariat will promote capacity-building, learning and knowledge transfer on gender-responsive, equity-enhancing and human rights-based approaches in health, including through training and by strengthening analysis and research capacity to promote the sustained integration of these approaches in its work with Member States and their partners through, for instance, the WHO Academy and regional and national initiatives.
To support the three strategic shifts, the Secretariat will work to strengthen accountability for gender, equity and human rights, including commitments on disability, diversity and inclusion. This will be operationalized through United Nations accountability frameworks such as UNSWAP and UNDIS, as well as through internal mechanisms such as the ?Impactful integration of gender, equity and human rights? dimension on mainstreaming in the output scorecard. These accountability frameworks constitute a major aspect of annual reporting to Member States. The Secretariat will also work to promote an organizational culture that supports an enabling environment for gender, equity and human rights mainstreaming and for promoting diversity and inclusion in the Secretariat?s workforce.
COVID-19 has exploited and exacerbated pre-existing social and health inequities, including gender inequalities, and has reversed decades of progress on these fronts. More than ever, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically illustrated the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights and the need to develop a holistic, integrated response to the pandemic and other health issues. As the global community works on building back better, achieving this output will contribute to building more resilient health systems in ways that accommodate and compensate for pre-existing inequities as part of the pandemic response, including during future outbreaks or pandemics. The lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic response underscore the need to strengthen the ?leave no one behind? approach in the health sector response and socioeconomic recovery plans. The Secretariat has already adapted its work and will continue to support countries? ?leave no one behind? impact assessments, mitigation tools and technical guidance. The Secretariat will support capacity-building among national and local stakeholders in engaging, empowering and supporting communities in national and local COVID-19 response efforts. It will also optimize the role of community care workers in engaging with communities, including in surveillance, data-collection efforts and community-based participatory approaches. Strengthened leadership, governance and advocacy for health