Technical Background Paper 2023

The Technical Background Paper on social participation synthesizes key messages from the World Health Organization publication ‘Voice, agency, empowerment – handbook on social participation for universal health coverage'. It has been developed as the basis for consultation to identify priorities for Member States to institutionalise social participation in health decision-making processes.

As attested through declarations and resolutions at global, regional and national levels, Memeber States agree on the importance and relevance of the principle of social participation in health governance. However, the principle of social participation is not sufficiently implemented in practice. This background paper identifies priorities for Member States to institutionalize social participation in health decision-making processes:

• Investing adequate, stable and predictable financial resources for participation
• Building government capacities to design and implement meaningful participation and facilitating the capacity strengthening of participants
• Establishing and/or strengthening mechanisms for sustained regular participation
• Monintoring and using data routinely to evaluate participatory processes and their impact on decisions made

This Technical Background Paper will be finalised based on feedback and published later this year.

In preparation of this final document, we kindly invite and ecourage you to fill in the survey.

We welcome responses in any language. The deadline for responses is 25 June 2023.