Three years after the adoption of resolution WHA76.6, countries returned to the Assembly asking how to put rehabilitation into practice. The World Rehabilitation Alliance used the week to launch two policy briefs on rehabilitation and functioning.
Rehabilitation returned to the World Health Assembly as a dedicated agenda item three years after the Assembly adopted resolution WHA76.6 on strengthening rehabilitation in health systems. Under Item 15.1, 37 interventions were delivered on behalf of 76 Member States. Rehabilitation was also raised under at least 12 other items, from universal health coverage (UHC) and primary health care to noncommunicable diseases, the Sustainable Development Goals and health emergencies. WHO confirmed that the Global Status Report on Rehabilitation, mandated by the resolution, will be launched in 2028.
Countries are asking how rehabilitation is measured and integrated
Statements returned repeatedly to indicators and to the integration of rehabilitation into health information systems.
Ethiopia called for rehabilitation to be embedded in national health information systems and in the WHO UHC Service Coverage Index.
Several Member States used the language of functioning, including functional outcomes, independence and participation. Qatar described functional ability as a population-level outcome.
Angola spoke on behalf of the 47 Member States of the WHO African Region, and El Salvador on behalf of the Committee on Victim Assistance.
Brunei Darussalam, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia and Nigeria were among the Member States whose engagement was new or markedly stronger than at earlier governing body sessions.
Countries described what implementation looks like
At Beyond Survival: Integrating Rehabilitation for Health, Longevity, and Equity, an official side event on 21 May at WHO headquarters, Cameroon described bringing rehabilitation from specialized hospitals into primary health care. Japan described coverage under both health insurance and long-term care insurance. Slovakia is developing a patient classification system to inform a new payment mechanism, and Humanity & Inclusion described how a WHO STARS assessment in Benin led to a national rehabilitation plan for 2023–2027. WHO reported that more than 75 countries are now committed to the Rehabilitation 2030 agenda. The event was convened by the World Rehabilitation Alliance, organized by its members Humanity & Inclusion and the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP), and co-sponsored by the Governments of Cameroon, Japan and Slovakia. Closing it, the vice-chair of the Alliance’s Steering Committee said that health systems should be judged not only on whether people survive disease, but on whether people are able to live meaningful, functional lives.
Two policy briefs launched to make rehabilitation visible in measurement
On 20 May, at the UHC2030 networking space, the Alliance used “Living Healthier, Living Better: Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology in UHC” to launch Rehabilitation: a non-negotiable pillar of universal health coverage and Rehabilitation and functioning in the 2030 agenda. Rehabilitation is named in the Political Declaration on UHC, but it is not measured in coverage, in the workforce or as a dimension of population health, and the missing reporting architecture is the barrier. The second brief carries the argument to the Sustainable Development Goals: progress should be read through three dimensions, mortality, morbidity and functioning, the third being the one set out in the Alliance’s Strategic Plan 2025–2030.
A week of events and joint statements
Six events during the week included the WHO Rehabilitation Programme and the Alliance, among them a session of the Acute Care Action Network, a breakfast event on functioning in pain management and a roundtable on reconstructive care. At the Second Participants’ Gathering of the WHO Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs, the Alliance reported that five of the eight advocacy priorities it developed ahead of the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs and mental health are directly reflected in the adopted Political Declaration. Seventeen member organizations attended the Assembly, 13 of them in official relations with WHO, and delivered joint statements, with the support of the Alliance, under six further items. The statements called for rehabilitation and functioning to be reflected in UHC monitoring ahead of the 2027 UN High-Level Meeting on UHC.
The Eightieth World Health Assembly in May 2027 and the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC in September 2027 come next, followed by the Global Status Report on Rehabilitation in 2028. Statements at this Assembly suggest that measurement will be central to all three.