The United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) working group in Cabo Verde on the pillar Sustainable Development of Human Capital - ‘People’, coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), identified Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as a Strategic Programmatic Area until 2022.

This was presented by WHO during the Partnership Dialogue Meeting with Development partners on United Nations in Cabo Verde (UNCV) – Government Cooperation framework, chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communities, Luis Filipe Tavares, and the UNCV Resident Coordinator, Ana Patricia Graça.

The working group is composed by ILO, UNFPA, UN-Habitat, UNICEF, UNODC, UNDP, UN-Women and WHO. UHC was identified as a key area to achieve populations with improved access to an inclusive, universal, gender sensitive quality health and nutrition services that contribute to the economic sustainable development of Cabo Verde.

The UNDAF Cabo Verde 2018-2022 is budgeted on 96,000,000 USD for 5 years and “a substantial part of that amount has already been raised thanks to the United Nations agencies funds and the funds raised through various development partners”, noted the Minister.

During the presentation, Edith Pereira, Health Promotion Coordinator at WHO Cabo Verde highlighted “the need to reinforce the country capacities in public health emergencies, quality health care and health promotion to have a country free of epidemics and Non-Communicable Diseases”.

UHC Strategic Programmatic Area involves several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG2, SDG3, SDG5, SDG10. Approximately 3,284,000 USD have been mobilized until now and there is a gap of 5,082,150 USD to accomplish the UNDAF targets by 2022.

Furthermore, during the meeting the partners were updated on the reform process of the UN Development System and its impact on the SDGs and the UN in Cabo Verde functionality as well as introduced to the UN Country Team and the UNDAF programmatic interventions to support the Strategic Plan for Sustainable Development (PEDS) approved by the Cabo-Verdean Government.

Likewise, it was an opportunity to promote an exchange of information with partners, including ambassadors, donors and development agencies on the main achievements, as well as to foster synergies, complementarity of interventions and new partnerships, in the framework of the SDG agenda and the national priorities.