ILO advocates social health protection for workers

The International Labour Organization has emphasised the central role of social health protection in achieving Universal Health Coverage, as the world marked International UHC Day. The agency reiterated its commitment to a rights‑based approach that guarantees access to health for all.

In 2025, the ILO partnered with governments, workers’ and employers’ organisations, and international bodies to strengthen social health protection systems and help countries make progress toward UHC. A key focus was breaking down barriers between the social protection and health sectors, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals on universal social protection and health coverage.

The organisation said in a blog post that integrating social protection with health services is crucial for expanding access, reducing inequalities, and ensuring that health systems can reach the most vulnerable populations.

In partnership with the World Health Organization, the ILO co‑hosted a side event at the World Summit for Social Development in Doha on “Universal Social Protection for Better Health, Improved Resilience and Poverty Reduction”, highlighting the health benefits of social protection and how it drives intersectoral collaboration.

The advocacy drew on the ILO’s leadership within the P4H network, a global alliance providing coherent support to low‑ and middle‑income countries in building sustainable health systems with backing from the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency.

In 2025, the ILO significantly expanded its capacity‑building efforts on social health protection. New learning opportunities included a hybrid course on Social Health Protection: Addressing Inequities in Access to Health Care, an online Social Health Protection Toolkit launched on World Health Day, and a massive open online course that has already reached more than 1,000 participants worldwide. Country‑level work involved training in Nigeria and Tanzania on coverage extension and scheme administration and facilitating South–South knowledge exchanges, such as study tours to Nepal for officials from Ethiopia, Senegal, and Zambia to observe implementation of the openIMIS system.

The ILO also supported efforts to strengthen sustainable financing and evidence‑based decision‑making, including assessing the financial sustainability of community‑based health insurance in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and strengthening actuarial capacities for health financing modelling in Peru. In Burkina Faso and Zambia, the organisation helped national institutions use actuarial models to forecast the effect of policy changes on health coverage and adequacy.

To deepen knowledge on inclusive coverage, the ILO released two key publications on UHC Day: a working paper comparing universal health insurance schemes in 10 low- and middle-income countries, focusing on inclusion of people living in poverty and informal workers, and an ILO Brief on Social Health Protection and the Informal Economy offering guidance on reaching informal workers and their families.

The ILO said its 2025 initiatives aim to accelerate progress on UHC by promoting sustainable, inclusive social health protection policies that ensure equitable access to essential health services without financial hardship.