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By Bimbola Oyesola
On the International Universal Health Coverage Day, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has reaffirmed its commitment to promoting a rights-based approach to achieve health for all.
Throughout 2025, the Organisation worked with governments, workers’ and employers’ organisations, and international partners to reinforce social health protection systems and support countries in advancing towards universal health coverage.
Breaking down silos between the social protection and health sectors
A key focus of the ILO’s work in 2025 was strengthening multisectoral collaboration across the sustainable development targets on universal social protection (SDG 1.3) and universal health coverage (SDG 3.8). As respective custodian for those targets, the ILO and the WHO organized a side event at the World Summit for Social Development in Doha on “Universal social protection (USP) for better health, improved resilience and poverty reduction”.
The event highlighted the health dividends of universal social protection and the role of social health protection as a driver of intersectoral collaboration. This advocacy drew on the ILO’s leadership role within the P4H network -a global network of multilateral and bilateral partners who provide coherent support to low/middle-income countries in building sustainable health systems- made possible thanks to a partnership with the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency.
Expanding capacity building at all levels to strengthen social health protection.
In 2025, the ILO said it significantly expanded its capacity-building offer on social health protection. New learning opportunities included: a new ILO-ITC hybrid course Social Health Protection: Addressing Inequities in Access to Health Care, the online Social Health Protection Toolkit launched on World Health Day and a MOOC Introduction to Social Health Protection launched in September 2025, already reaching over 1,000 participants.
At country level, the ILO deepened its support through strong partnerships. In Nigeria and Tanzania, trainings with national and regional constituents focused on innovative practices for coverage extension and scheme administration. The ILO also facilitated south-south knowledge exchanges on social health protection through several study tours. For example, representatives from Ethiopia, Senegal and Zambia observed the implementation of openIMIS open source management information system for social health protection in Nepal and reflected on their digitalization strategies.
Supporting sustainable financing for social health protection
The ILO noted it has also continued to strengthening countries’ capacities for evidence-based decision-making and sustainable financing. In Ethiopia, it supported the assessment of the financial sustainability of the community-based health insurance in Addis Ababa, providing crucial evidence on readiness for coverage extension , including for refugees. In Peru, the ILO helped strengthen actuarial capacities for health financing modelling, as part of a wider policy and legal support in the framework of the Global Ratification Campaign on C102. In Burkina Faso and Zambia, national institutions received support in using the ILO/HEALTH actuarial model to better anticipate the impact of policy changes on health coverage and adequacy.
Strengthening knowledge towards universal coverage
To mark International Universal Health Coverage Day, the ILO is released two key publications illustrating how countries can extend social health protection sustainably and inclusively.
A new working paper on Universal Health Insurance Schemes: A comparative analysis of implementation features in 10 low- and middle-income countries documents how different systems ensure inclusion of people living in poverty and those in informal employment. An ILO Brief on Social health protection and the informal economy provides guidance specifically on designing and implementing mechanisms that effectively reach workers in the informal economy and their families.
