UNGA’s Ambitious Agenda, World Peace Day, and the American Dream

Editor's Note

The UN General Assembly convened this week for its seventy-eighth session. David P. Fidler, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), discusses the assembly's ambitious health agenda, which includes meetings on the Sustainable Development Goals, climate change, pandemic preparedness and response, universal health coverage, and tuberculosis. Those meetings, Fidler argues, "constitute a breathtaking health-related agenda for a troubled world," the consequences of which will determine "whether the UN-centered multilateral system can direct global health diplomacy after the COVID-19 pandemic."

On Thursday, world leaders commemorated the International Day of Peace first designated by the UN General Assembly in 1981 to highlight the importance of peace. Now, with humanitarian crises on multiple continents, there is a need for multi-sectoral accountability, including that of global health actors, to promote peace, argue Benedetta Armocida and Maja Pašović, from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Our next contributor, Pallabi Deb, senior program manager for the HIV Vaccine Trials Network, describes meeting Aleta, who immigrated to the United States from Ghana to become a nurse. The COVID-19 pandemic derailed Aleta's training, and, like many immigrants, she has dealt with racial prejudices, economic challenges, and health-care inequities. She now navigates life as a car-share driver. Deb concludes by asking: "Does the American Dream still truly stand unbiased and unblemished for all?"

Closing out the week is a piece from Christina Bouri, research associate in CFR's Middle East program, analyzing women's labor-force participation in the Middle East, which stands at only 19 percent. Employment is an important social determinant of health, but cultural and structural barriers, including childcare issues and long work hours, constrain women's workforce participation across the Middle East. Bouri explores how countries, such as Jordan, are working with multilateral organizations to overcome those barriers.

As always, thank you for reading.—Thomas J. Bollyky, Editor 