UHC Day 2025: Measuring what matters

Hi advocates! It’s that time of the week again, and today we are diving into the world of measurement and metrics. The more time, energy and passion you invest in strengthening social participation for UHC, the more important it becomes to understand the impact your advocacy is having. Measuring your progress will help you learn, adapt and strengthen your influence. It will also strengthen your credibility and help you mobilize more resources and support.

Why measurement matters for social participation

Social participation must be transparent, and when both decision-makers and communities can see what has been achieved and what gaps remain, tangible change is more achievable. Measuring your impact helps you:

• Show how community voices shape UHC policies and plans,

• Build trust and credibility with decision-makers and communities,

• Identify what’s working, where you need to adjust, and who else needs to be included,

• Strengthen your case for increased investment in participation, and

• Review evidence and adapt your strategy.

What you can do

Start by defining what success looks like to you. Write down some clear goals – and make sure these are linked to national commitments you would like to see. Your metrics can be based on the activities you planned, the decisions you have influenced, improvements in the health system following your advocacy, or any other indicators you feel will best reflect the success of your campaign. Even if you feel your impact is minimal, you can show how your influence has contributed to changes. Check out the WHA77 Resolution on social participation for UHC for inspiration.

Once you have defined clear goals, it is easier to track your influence on local and national policy. You can measure both your direct and indirect influence. Examples of direct influence include events like a community representative being added to a policy committee or a budget change after your group’s public input. Indirect influences could look like an increase in media attention, policy-makers adopting your community’s language or narrative, or your work sparking a new collaboration with other key advocates. Keep simple records in a spreadsheet or shared online document with meeting notes, emails, media mentions and before and after versions of policies.

Next, it is time to build mechanisms for feedback. To build a successful social participation movement, you need open channels for your community to share experiences and express concerns. From WhatsApp or other social media groups and focus group discussions, to surveys, polls or feedback loops to report back on what has changed as a result of your community’s input – creating open lines of communication is essential.

Perhaps equally important to tracking your influence is measuring your movement’s growth. Keeping track of new volunteers or partners, capacity- and skill-building efforts, resources secured and any increase in your ability to engage with local and national processes will help you understand your increasing capacity and make sure your movement is sustainable.

Finally, use the data you have gathered to evaluate and adapt your strategies. Ask yourself: What worked well and what barriers still exist? Who was engaged, and who still needs to be invited to the table? Did things go to plan, or were there surprises along the way? How can you strengthen your strategy to be even more impactful next time? Self-reflection builds adaptability and sustainability and will keep your movement relevant and relatable as it grows.

Measuring progress keeps the movement strong

Every consultation you organize, every community voice amplified, and every policy shift you influence moves your country closer to achieving universal health coverage. Tracking what matters – your activities, influence and community impact – helps ensure social participation is meaningful and effective.

Social participation at play

Photo by CdP AFSS during 2018 health conference in Ouagadougou. Used here for illustrative purpose only.

In Burkina Faso, civil society has long called for stronger social protection and the removal of user fees for the poorest. As momentum grew, the Ministry of Health created a multi-stakeholder steering committee in 2015 that brought together civil-society health networks, the private sector and development partners to co-develop the National Health Financing Strategy for UHC. Through these dialogue spaces, civil-society groups were able to share evidence to monitor households’ financial barriers, assess the impacts of proposed reforms, and adjust priorities as evidence emerged.

By grounding discussions in shared information and community perspectives, these dialogues strengthened civil society’s analytical and advocacy capacity and ensured that equity and financial protection remained at the core of the strategy finalized in 2018. These structured communication channels also built trust between government and communities, as stakeholders could see how their inputs shaped decisions and follow the strategy’s evolution over time.

Although further work is needed to translate these commitments into consistent service improvements, Burkina Faso’s experience shows how strong shared evidence, feedback mechanisms and open communication can drive change and mobilize broader civil-society engagement toward universal health coverage.

Click here to learn more.

What you can do

Once you have all that data available, you can use it to tell the stories behind your movement. Building authentic narratives into your advocacy can help decision-makers understand why participation matters and inspire others to join your movement.

And stay tuned over the coming weeks for UHC2030’s new Global UHC Action Tracker (ACT for UHC). Formerly known as The State of Commitment to Universal Health Coverage (UHC), this revamped report and dashboard will provide access to the evidence needed to track the implementation of commitments adopted in the 2023 Political Declaration on UHC.

Tool spotlight

Help us show decision-makers that #HealthCostsHurt. If you have ever been affected by health costs, post a video with your story on social media using #HealthCostsHurt and tag your decision makers, UHC2030 and CSEM.