Webinar – Social participation for universal health coverage: Part 2 - Representation in participatory processes

Background

WHO, the Health System Governance Collaborative, Health Systems Global, UHC2030, the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) of UHC2030 and the UHC Partnership are co-hosting a webinar series around the development of a WHO guidance document, the handbook on social participation for universal health coverage. The handbook will provide best practice guidance to policymakers on how to effectively and meaningfully engage with populations, communities and civil society in national policy, planning and review processes.

The second session of the series looked into representation in participatory processes:

How to ensure the ‘right’ representatives are at the table? How to ensure that the form and design of deliberations are set up as so that participants have the possibilities to legitimately represent their constituency?

This segment aims to provoke policy-makers to reflect on the central issues linked to (a) recruiting representatives and (b) ensuring that the participatory process lends participants the maximum level of legitimacy and credibility to represent the voice of the target public(s) of the participatory process.

The team synthesized available peer reviewed literature and findings from nine country case studies across the world. A consultation on the handbook content is currently open and we encourage all interested parties to take part.

The recording of this session can be found below: