This initiative was co-launched by China, Brazil, Ethiopia, Oman, Peru, South Africa, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, at Side Event Shaping Future Health Systems for Equity and Access in Digital Era — From Vision to Practice during 79th World Health Assembly, May 18th 2026.

We, gathered in Geneva on 18 May 2026 during the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly, and engage in comprehensive discussions and exchanges focused on advancing future-oriented, equitable, and resilient health systems in the digital and intelligent era.

We note with concern that progress towards achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 remains off track. It is imperative to substantially improve equity and accessibility in health care coverage and accelerate the building of resilient health systems to ensure the SDG targets are achieved on schedule.

We also recognize that health serves as a foundation for sustainable socioeconomic development. In the context of rapid population ageing, the growing burden of chronic diseases, and the emerging public health risks, the equity, sustainability, efficiency, and resilience of health systems in the world must be further enhanced. The advent of the digital and intelligent era provides a tremendous opportunity for this.

Based on the above shared understanding for building a shared future for health systems in the digital and intelligent era, we would like to suggest the following:

Strengthening government accountability and investment in health systems. Countries should steadily increase domestic public financing, prioritize primary care and public health. We should also strengthen the institutional and infrastructural foundations for health system transformation, develop sustainable financing models that enable the integration of digital health services into regular health system schemes so as to promote the appropriate development and responsible use of digital and intelligent technologies in health sector.

Strengthening primary health care as the foundation of health systems. Countries should leverage digital and intelligent technologies to boost primary-level service capacity, enhance the digital competencies of the health workforce, in order to extend service to remote and low-resources settings and advance equity in access to health care. 

Advancing integrated health services. Countries should facilitate the transformation of service models from a disease-centred approach to a health-centred framework, strengthen coordination across institutions, and improve life-course health management through data sharing and interoperability, thereby promoting people-centered integrated care (PCIC).

Improving care quality and system efficiency. Countries should strengthen quality control and performance assessment of health care to improve the efficiency of health systems through the application of digital and intelligent technologies in process optimization and assisted decision-making.

Strengthening the governance of digital and intelligent technologies in health. Countries should establish guidelines for the ethical, safe, and responsible use of artificial intelligence in health, enhance data security and privacy protection, and develop unified data standards, technical specifications, and interoperability protocols for regulated sharing and appropriate use of health data.

Enhancing international collaboration for experience sharing and collective development. Countries should strengthen policy dialogue, experience exchanges, and capacity building on health systems, sharing country practices and cases for the replication and scaling-up of established approaches and best practices. We support the leadership and coordination role of the World Health Organization in improving equitable access to digital and intelligent technologies as global public goods.

Health systems are vital to the health and well-being of mankind, as well as to the sustainable development of the world. We support the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits, and advocate for collective efforts to establish more equitable, accessible, and resilient health systems that contribute to global health and well-being.