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Healthy people

Many people around the world are still without access to basic health care. Death rates among young children remain shockingly high—5.9 million died before reaching their fifth birthday in 2015. Millions of people living with HIV and AIDS are not receiving the care they should. Access to reproductive health services remains limited for millions of adolescents.

We work to improve access to quality health care for some of the world’s most vulnerable people. We focus on cutting childhood death rates, improving the health of women and adolescents, and boosting HIV/AIDS care—all areas targeted in for action in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Central to this work is making sure that parliaments are engaged with the key issues and are using their influence and powers to the full. Our practical steps include raising awareness among parliaments, combatting stigma and discrimination, and supporting plans for action as they emerge and are implemented.

We provide MPs and parliaments with the practical skills needed to legislate on and budget for better health care. We also work with parliaments on ways to ensure that health care is made accessible to all people fairly, and for central governments to be held accountable for delivering the services. We help to ensure that parliaments have access to the best possible resources and practices.

Our work to improve health is part of our commitment to sustainable development. At the 141st IPU Assembly, Member Parliaments adopted the first parliamentary resolution on achieving universal health coverage (UHC) by 2030. The resolution urges parliaments to put in place effective UHC legislation to ensure that the right to public health and medical care is guaranteed for all in law and in practice, without discrimination.

The work of the IPU's Advisory Group on Health is part of our overall commitment to health and to helping achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In this section
Today women, children and adolescents face unprecedented social, economic and cultural change. Photo: ©Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko.
Today women, children and adolescents face unprecedented social, economic and cultural change. We are deeply committed to helping them to not only survive but also thrive and transform the communities they live in—particularly in the developing world.
The HIV epidemic remains a huge social, human and developmental challenge. Photo: ©Reuters/Navesh Chitrakar
The HIV epidemic remains a huge social, human and developmental challenge. Addressing these challenges requires strong political commitment and bold responses in terms of both policies and programmes.