The technical paper distils key messages from the World Health Organization publication “Voice, agency, empowerment – handbook on social participation for universal health coverage”, along with feedback from a multistakeholder consultation process to identify priority actions for Member States to institutionalize social participation in decision-making processes for health. Social participation is defined as empowering people, communities and civil society, through inclusive participation in decision-making processes that affect health, across the policy cycle and at all levels of the system. It is core to primary health care and promotes equitable progress towards universal health coverage, producing more responsive health policies and programmes, and helping to foster population trust with the health system. While Member States have endorsed the principle of social participation, translation into practice has been inadequate. The following priority actions are identified: (a) Strengthen government capacities to design and implement social participation (b) Secure equitable, diverse and inclusive representation (c) Ensure that social participation informs decision-making for health across the policy cycle (d) Systematize and sustain regular social participation, including through legal frameworks (e) Invest adequate, stable and predictable financial resources for social participation (f) Facilitate capacity strengthening and financial resources for civil society (g) Monitor and use data and evidence routinely to evaluate participatory processes and their impact on decisions made.

Patient safety is fundamental to the provision of health care in all settings. However, avoidable adverse events, errors and risks associated with health care remain major challenges for patient safety globally. The Seventy-second World Health Assembly in 2019 adopted resolution WHA72.6 on global action on patient safety and mandated for development of a global patient safety action plan. This global action plan was adopted by Seventy-Fourth World Health Assembly in 2021 with a vision of “a world in which no one is harmed in health care, and every patient receives safe and respectful care, every time, everywhere”. The purpose of the action plan is to provide strategic direction for all stakeholders for eliminating avoidable harm in health care and improving patient safety in different practice domains through policy actions on safety and quality of health services, as well as for implementation of recommendations at the point of care. The action plan provides a framework for countries to develop their respective national action plans on patient safety, as well to align existing strategic instruments for improving patient safety in all clinical and health-related programmes.