WONCA contributions to the 79th World Health Assembly

Statement on Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health

Agenda items 12.1 Noncommunicable Diseases and 12.2 Mental Health

The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) urges Member States to recognize NCDs, including mental health, as key priorities for primary health care.

People live with multiple chronic conditions which lead to disability, financial hardship, and premature mortality.

Family doctors and primary care teams are uniquely positioned to provide integrated, person-centered, and continuous care across the life course.

Governments should invest in community-based primary health care, particularly the health workforce, expand access to essential medicines, and strengthen mental health services as an integral part of prevention and care management programs.

Policies must address social determinants, reduce stigma, and ensure equitable access for all from every age, including vulnerable and frail populations, migrants, and people affected by conflict.

WONCA calls for sustained financing, measurable targets, and accountability to achieve healthier communities worldwide for all.

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Statement on Universal Health Coverage

Agenda item 12.4 Universal health coverage

The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) calls on WHO and Member States to recognize family doctors and primary care teams as key partners of Universal Health Coverage.

In integrated emergency, critical and operative (ECO) care, they support stabilization, urgent care, perioperative management, referral, and follow-up, particularly in rural and underserved communities where they also provide essential surgical services.

Family doctors identify people who may need transplantation, provide culturally safe counselling on organ donation and advance care planning, support ethical, equitable access, and deliver longitudinal post-transplant care.

Family doctors also recognize early warning signs of rare diseases, coordinate referrals, and ensure continuity of care so no patient is disadvantaged by geography, income, or complexity.

Investing in family medicine, protected workforces, digital tools, and clear pathways will strengthen equity, safety, trust, and people-centered UHC.

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Statement on Primary Health Care and Health Workforce

Agenda items 12.5 Primary Health Care and 12.8 Health Workforce

Primary healthcare is the foundation of resilient and equitable health systems, and family doctors are at its core. Strong evidence shows that continuity, coordination and comprehensiveness deliver better outcomes, patient safety and stronger communities across the life course. These are the hallmarks of person-centered family medicine.

The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) shares the Board's concern over persistent underinvestment in primary healthcare. This gap is felt most acutely in the severe and worsening global shortage of family doctors, which threatens progress on universal health coverage, especially in underserved communities.

WONCA calls on WHO and Member States to:

• Invest in family medicine training, workforce development, specialty recognition, and fair working conditions.
• Promote ethical international recruitment standards.
• Strengthen continuity-based primary care as the backbone of resilient health systems.

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Statement on Antimicrobial Resistance

Agenda item 12.9 Antimicrobial Resistance

The World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) welcomes the commitment to accelerate action on Antimicrobial Resistance.

Primary care is the frontline of antibiotic prescribing: up to 80% of antibiotic use occurs in the community, making family doctors key stewards. AMR is not a distant threat; it shapes daily clinical decisions.

Effective stewardship requires managing complex behavioural aspects of prescribing, including patient pressure, clinical uncertainty, and the need for rapid reassurance. Family doctors navigate these dynamics through trusted, longitudinal relationships. We combine diagnostic precision with clear patient communication to reduce unnecessary prescribing.

WONCA urges Member States to:

• Integrate AMR stewardship into primary care workflows.
• Support point-of-care diagnostics.
• Invest in public education that aligns expectations with safe prescribing.

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Statement on Health Emergencies

Agenda item 13.2 Implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005)

The frontline of any health emergency is not only at a hospital; it is also at local family practices. Vertical emergency programs will collapse if the horizontal foundation of Primary Health Care is weak.

To bridge global policy and the local consultation room, the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) calls for:

• Investment in primary care as the early-warning system including interoperable digital health systems so family doctors' real-time clinical data triggers national public health alerts.
• Preparedness of the primary care workforce, through training and support in outbreak detection and emergency response.
• Integration of primary care continuity into emergency frameworks, to prevent the secondary wave of unmanaged chronic conditions that follows every crisis.

Global health security is only as strong as primary health care, and only as durable as the trust family doctors hold.

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Statement on Health of Indigenous Peoples

Agenda item 15.3 Health of Indigenous Peoples

WONCA welcomes the WHO Global Plan of Action for the Health of Indigenous Peoples, especially its focus on rural populations, multidisciplinary teams, and support for Indigenous-led health services.

To turn this plan into reality, we ask Member States to focus on four critical actions:

• Explicitly recognize family doctors and rural generalists as essential for culturally safe, continuous care.
• Create policies and plans for workforce sustainability and retention of Indigenous health workers.
• Call for immediate, decisive action to eliminate structural racism and correct inequitable access to care in remote communities.
• Commit that digital health tools and AI must be co-designed with Indigenous Peoples and ensure Indigenous data sovereignty to actively support self-determination.

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Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Agenda item 12.6. Constituency statement delivered by the World Heart Federation on behalf of a coalition of non-State actors, including WONCA.

Co-signatories: World Heart Federation, Global Alliance for Tobacco Control, HelpAge International, International Alliance of Patients' Organizations, International Society of Nephrology, International Council of Nurses, International Diabetes Federation, Sightsavers, World Stroke Organization, World Organization of Family Doctors, World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry, and the Global Diagnostic Imaging, Healthcare IT, and Radiation Therapy Trade Association.

We note with concern that the world is significantly off course to achieve the health-related Sustainable Development Goals, especially targets 3.4 and 3.8.

Noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancers, hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, and other circulatory health conditions, represent the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Yet, NCDs remain largely underprioritized across global, regional, and national health, financing, and political agendas.

The unequal distribution of NCD incidence, prevalence, and outcomes reflects deep and persistent inequities shaped by social, economic, commercial, geographical, and environmental determinants of health, with consequences that extend across all SDGs. Populations in low- and middle-income countries and disadvantaged groups, including women, children, persons with disabilities, and older persons, face serious barriers across the continuum of NCD care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed critical vulnerabilities in health systems, public health preparedness, and societal resilience through global health crises. Essential NCD services must be fully integrated into health emergency preparedness, response, and recovery plans to ensure continuity of care through crises, including in humanitarian settings.

Universal health coverage must be built on strong primary healthcare, financial protection, and access to comprehensive, integrated services for NCDs and their main drivers, such as obesity, across the full continuum of care, including prevention, chronic care, essential medicines, diagnostics, and technologies. Strengthening primary healthcare remains essential, as it could deliver up to 90% of the interventions needed to achieve universal health coverage and, if scaled up across LMICs, could save 60 million lives by 2030.

Beyond 2030, SDG target 3.4 should better reflect demographic realities and address NCD-related death and disability across all ages.

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Draft Strategy on the Economics of Health for All

Agenda item 15.5. Constituency statement delivered through the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA), co-signed by WONCA.

Co-signatories: FIP International Pharmaceutical Federation, ICN International Council of Nurses, WMA World Medical Association, World Confederation for Physical Therapy (World Physiotherapy), International Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research, Women in Global Health, International Society of Nephrology, International Alliance of Patients' Organizations (IAPO), International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics, World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists, International Federation of Biomedical Laboratory Science, World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), Global Health Partnerships, World Federation of Chiropractic, and Alliance for Health Promotion.

Four of the supporting organisations, FIP, ICN, WMA and World Physiotherapy, are in the World Health Professions Alliance, with 47 million health professionals and an MoU with WHO.

An economy of health for all is impossible without sustained, strategic investment in the people who deliver health. There is no economic prosperity or population health without a skilled, supported, protected and adequately-resourced health workforce. Health workforce is an essential pillar of sustainable, effective healthcare systems; with accelerating population ageing, demand for healthcare services will increase.

Addressing the global health workforce crisis requires long-term, sustainable strategies that prioritise workforce well-being as a core system investment, put more women in leadership roles and address health worker mobility equitably. Investments should be guided by research evidence, and the health workforce's perspective, to identify effective workforce policies. The health and well-being of health personnel directly influence quality of care, patient safety and economic productivity. Neglect leads to higher turnover, absenteeism, preventable errors or unavailability of medical devices, imposing significant and recurring costs on national economies. In contrast, investing in workforce well-being and education improves care quality and safety, strengthens retention, enhances system resilience and delivers substantial economic returns.

The economic evidence is clear. Every dollar invested in health systems generates returns of $2-4 USD. Higher health workforce density is associated with longer life expectancy, improved productivity, and sustained economic growth.

Health innovation and macroeconomic strategies must prioritise public health value, equity, and population needs, strengthening primary health care, health promotion and workforce capacity globally. This statement's signatories support the adoption of the draft strategy.

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