Realizing Health for All: Resilient Health Systems and Sustained Progress toward Universal Health Coverage

About

Achieving health for all by 2030 is a central ambition of the Sustainable Development Goals, with Universal Health Coverage (UHC) at its core. UHC ensures that everyone can access quality health services and essential medicines without financial hardship, and its importance has grown as countries increasingly recognize its role in reducing poverty, promoting gender equality, supporting education, strengthening climate resilience, and building inclusive societies. This commitment has been reinforced over time through multiple political declarations, including recent global agreements such as the 2025 WHO Pandemic Agreement, which highlight the urgent need for resilient health systems and sustained progress toward UHC.

Governance and law are critical to this effort. Strong legal frameworks translate policy into action, support effective health system functions, define the rules for an equitable access to health services and provide the means by which national governments can implement coverage.

This course introduces the principles and legal foundations of UHC, examining how laws, regulations, and rights-based approaches shape national health systems. Participants will explore governance mechanisms, regulatory standards, and accountability tools, and learn how legal instruments influence universal coverage, the disponibility, accessibility, acceptability and quality of essential services and financial support.

By the end of the course, participants will be equipped with practical tools to analyze national legal frameworks and propose reforms that advance sustainable, rights-based progress toward UHC empowering them to contribute to global health transformation.

Course leader

Prof. Stéphanie Dagron (University of Geneva)

Target group

Practitioners, researchers, and graduate students

Course aim

By the end of the course participants will:
- Understand the principles of Universal Health Coverage and its role in promoting equitable access to quality health services;
- Recognize the major global agreements and political commitments supporting UHC;
- Identify how law shapes the legal architecture of health systems and influences their performance;
- Develop the capacity to assess national legal frameworks for UHC, identifying strengths, gaps, and opportunities for reform.

Fee info

Discounts are available for PhD and Master’s students, participants from UMICs and LMICs, and members of LSS partner institutions (USI, SUPSI, Swiss TPH, and SSPH+). For details on fees and available discounts, contact us at info@ssph-lugano-summerschool.ch or visit our website.