Offline: Universal coverage, universally

Abstract

The annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are no place for health activists. This exclusive gathering of finance ministers and bankers, seasoned with economists and development experts, is dominated by capital markets and sovereign risk, debt sustainability and strengthening the Euro. Not this year. Last week, in Tokyo, the doors of the Fund and the Bank were opened to you. Thanks to the Government of Japan (and specifically Professor Keizo Takemi), global health was, for the first time, an important theme of the seminar programme for tired delegates. Two events focused on health. One, which included Chris Murray and Sania Nishtar, examined the case for investing in health. Why should national treasuries be asked to throw their resources into a bottomless pit that is health? A second seminar, featuring Margaret Chan and Nisha Agrawal, reviewed the opportunities and lessons of universal health coverage, “the single most important concept in public health today” (as Dr Chan noted earlier this year). This meeting was planned over a year ago, long before Jim Kim was welcomed as President of the World Bank. But since he is a self-declared health activist and someone who is on record as saying he wants his term as Bank President to be judged by progress made in women's and children's health, one can see how those of us who work in health might just be a little excited by this extraordinary astrology of events.