The World Health Organization (WHO) will convene the first WHO global oral health meeting to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) for oral health by 2030. The meeting will be hosted by the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand from Tuesday 26 to Friday 29 November 2024, in Bangkok, Thailand.
The overall goal of the WHO global oral health meeting is to reaffirm political commitment by Member States based on the resolution on oral health in 2021 (WHA74.5) and to accelerate and scale up national efforts to prevent and control noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), with a focus on oral diseases to achieve UHC for all by 2030. Furthermore, the WHO global oral health meeting contributes to the preparatory process leading to the 4th UN High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (4th UNHLM on NCDs) in 2025.
The WHO global oral health meeting will comprise a 3-day technical meeting with WHO, national oral health leads, national UHC programme leads and invited experts. This will then be followed by a half-day high-level segment inviting health ministers and senior leaders from non-State actors to discuss and reaffirm their commitments to support the implementation of the Global oral health action plan 2023–2030 and national oral health roadmaps. A number of side events will take place in the margins of the meeting.
It is anticipated that the meeting will be attended by around 400 participants in person.
Purpose
In the preparatory processes leading up to the 4th UNHLM on NCDs to be held in 2025, the WHO global oral health meeting aims to:
- strengthen the capacity of ministries of health to fulfill the commitments they made in the World Heath Assembly’s 2021 resolution on oral health (WHA74.5); and
- accelerate implementation of the Global oral health action plan 2023–2030 as part of broader NCD and UHC agendas.
Objectives
- Reaffirm Member States commitments to the implementation of Global oral health action plan 2023–2030.
- Discuss the 6 strategic objectives, 100 actions, 11 global targets and monitoring framework of the Global oral health action plan 2023–2030.
- Convene governments, UN agencies, multilateral and funding agencies, civil society organizations, people affected with NCDs, academia, philanthropies, and foundations to identify synergies in supporting the implementation of the Global oral health action plan 2023–2030.
Expected outcomes
- National oral health roadmaps aligned with the Global oral health action plan 2023–2030.
- Bangkok declaration on oral health endorsed by the Member States, reaffirming commitment to oral health and informing WHO Director-General’s report for the 4th UNHLM on NCDs in 2025.
- Global coalition on oral health formed, including a platform of commitments from Member States and partners to support the implementation of the Global oral health action plan 2023–2030.
- Meeting report developed with recommendations outlining the potential for countries to achieve UHC for oral health.
Venue
Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre Central World, Bangkok, Thailand
Date and time
The meeting will start at 09:00 (ICT) on 26 November and end at 13:30 (ICT) on 29 November.
Language
The working language of the meeting is English, with interpretation of plenaries provided in all official UN languages.
The concept note and provisional agenda are accessible in the links under “Related”. Additional information, including the meeting logistics, and working documents will be made available shortly.
The article originally appeared on World Health Organization.