Global health and foreign policy: an inclusive
approach to strengthening health systems
A/RES/74/20
29. Reaffirms the right to use, to the fullest extent, the provisions contained in
the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), which provides flexibilities for the protection
of public health and promotes access to medicines for all, in particular for developing
countries, and the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health,
which recognizes that intellectual property protection is important for the development
of new medicines and also recognizes the concerns about its effects on prices;
30. Calls upon Member States to explore, encourage and promote a range of
innovative incentives and financing mechanisms for health research and
development, including a stronger and transparent partnership between the public and
the private sectors as well as academia, recognizing the need for increasing public
health-driven research and development that is needs-driven and evidence-based,
guided by the core principles of safety, affordability, effectiveness, efficiency, equity
and considered as a shared responsibility, as well as appropriate incentives in the
development of new health products and technologies;
31. Also calls upon Member States to recognize the important role played by
the private sector in research and development of innovative medicines, encourage
the use, where appropriate, of alternative financing mechanisms for research and
development as a driver of innovation for new medicines and new uses for medicines
and continue to support voluntary initiatives and incentive mechanisms that separate
the cost of investment in research and development from the price and volume of
sales, facilitate equitable and affordable access to new tools and other results to be
gained through research and development;
32. Urges Member States to improve the digital skills of all persons, including
through working with civil society to build public trust and support for digital health
solutions, and to promote the application of digital health technology in the provision
of, and access to, everyday health-care services, with emphasis on health promotion
and predictive testing and screening, while ensuring access to important clinical
information, safety risks and protection of privacy;
33. Calls upon Member States to invest in and encourage ethical and public
health-driven use of relevant evidence-based and user-friendly technologies,
including digital technologies, and innovation to increase access to quality health and
related social services and relevant information, improve the cost -effectiveness of
health systems and efficiency in the provision and delivery of quality care in a manner
that recognizes the need to build and strengthen interoperable and integrated health
information systems for the management of health systems and public health
surveillance, as well as the need to protect data and privacy and narrow the digital
divide;
34. Also calls upon Member States to explore ways to consider integrating, as
appropriate, safe and evidence-based traditional and complementary medicine
services within national and/or subnational health systems, particularly at the level of
primary health care, according to national context and priorities;
35. Further calls upon Member States to encourage engagement among
Governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations,
academic and research institutions, philanthropic foundations and the private sector
and greater policy coherence and coordinated actions through whole -of-government
and health-in-all-policies approaches to find solutions to health challenges, such a s
the need for public health-driven research and development, improved existing and
alternative frameworks to adequately reward innovation, pricing and affordability of
health products, and leveraging innovative technologies, including digital
technologies, and solutions for health;
19-21394
11/12