UHC Day 2025: Using your voice to influence policy
Hi UHC advocates! With UHC Day fast approaching, this week we are going to dive into how to influence policy to ensure your leaders are keeping their promises. After all, social participation is not just a one-time event. For countries to build sustainable health systems that best respond to people’s needs, social participation must be embedded through every stage.
Using your voice to influence policy
From starting a petition to contacting your local decision-makers or sharing your story at an event – all forms of social participation are valuable to boost your advocacy. But lasting change happens when social participation becomes the norm. Having simple, ongoing ways for people to have their say in how their health systems are shaped is vital. This means countries must make inclusive and participatory decision-making part of their laws, policies and governance structures.
Why should governments lean into social participation?
Three important shifts happen when social participation is embedded into the work of governments:
Improved accountability. Social participation requires governments to listen to communities, respond to their concerns, and be transparent about how decisions are made. This strengthens and builds trust in public health policies and programs.
Inclusive and people-centered health systems. Social participation mechanisms ensure health systems are equitable and reflect the diversity of populations. It protects our collective right to be heard, ensuring that everyone can express their concerns and influence health priorities, regardless of which political party is in power.
Better decisions. When policies and laws are designed around the needs and concerns of real people, they are more equitable and representative of the realities of communities on the ground.
Frameworks for meaningful engagement and accountability
Global commitments like the WHA77 Resolution on Social Participation for universal health coverage, health and well-being and the UHC Political Declarations are there to give your local advocacy extra weight. With these frameworks you’re not asking alone; you’re reminding leaders of promises they have already made. Commitments such as these remind governments that participation is essential for achieving universal health coverage and for unlocking progress on all of the Sustainable Development Goals.
You can use these commitments as reference points in your messages or letters through statements such as: “Our government already agreed, at the 77th World Health Assembly, to strengthen social participation for health. Let’s put that promise into practice.”
Social participation at play
In Brazil, social participation in health is not just encouraged, it is the law. Since 1990, Law 8.142 has guaranteed communities the right to take part in health policy decisions through local, state and national health councils. These councils sit at the core of Brazil’s Unified Health System, or Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), and ensure that people, not just politicians, shape how health services are delivered.
Half of all seats on these councils are reserved for citizens and civil society organizations, with the remaining shared among health workers, managers and service providers. Through this structure, communities are able to monitor spending, evaluate service quality and hold authorities accountable for their promises.
Civil society representatives have used these spaces to raise issues such as equitable access to medicines, maternal health and the rights of marginalized populations.
Every four years, these deliberative processes culminate in the National Health Conference, a nationwide dialogue that gathers thousands of delegates to set priorities for the country’s health policies. The most recent, the 5th National Conference on Workers’ Health, showcased Brazil’s ongoing leadership in implementing the World Health Assembly’s Resolution on social participation for universal health coverage, health and well-being, with high-level government and community engagement at its core.
Although challenges remain, including ensuring meaningful inclusion of youth and under-represented groups, Brazil’s experience shows how embedding participation into law can transform the relationship between citizens and the government. When community voices are built into the health system itself, accountability and trust are strengthened, and policies align more closely with the realities of the people they serve.
What you can do
You don’t have to be a policy expert to push for changes to the health system in your country. There are a few simple actions you can take to start moving the needle. Start by finding out which laws and policies already exist in your country to facilitate social participation. Look for things like patient charters, citizen forums or community health committees. If these structures aren’t already in place, that’s a good issue to build your advocacy around. You can encourage decision-makers to formalize participation by:
Including social participation in national health strategies,
Creating a permanent advisory council with civil society or youth members,
Reporting on how community voices are considered in policy decisions.
Social participation is not just a box to check. In order for it to work, people need to know when and how they can engage. Decision-makers must share information transparently and act on feedback in a timely manner. The more the community expects of their leaders, the more accountable they will become.
Use the social participation tools you have acquired throughout this series to tell your story effectively and make your voice heard. Because when your voice is reflected in the laws, policies and governance structures that affect you, you move from being a participant to being a co-designer of your country’s health system.
Tool spotlight
More than half the world’s population still lacks access to essential health services. And a quarter of them face financial hardship when paying for health care out of their own pockets, often at the expense of food, education or housing. These aren’t just numbers. They’re valuable human lives.
Share the 2025 UHC Day campaign video to spread the word about the urgent need for UHC: