Reporting from the Floor of the 2023 UN General Assembly Author: Emily Smith, PhD, MSPH Dr. Emily Smith, an epidemiologist at Duke University, took part at the UN General Assembly in New York last month. She wrote two pieces in her newsletter on her experience and reactions. She graciously allowed EpiMonitor to reprint. We combined and shortened them for brevity. I’m taking part in a few events on universal health coverage at the UN and attending many of the side events happening. Tomorrow, September 21, 2023, is the biggest day that happens at the UN itself and includes an advocacy meeting on children with congenital anomalies and the big meeting on universal health coverage in the afternoon. Entry 1. I attended a side event on the missing populations in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These goals were set in 2015 to reach by 2030 and include 17 global goals like no poverty, clean water, etc. The panel highlighted several key populations that can easily be missed in these goals, like providing healthcare to LGBTQ populations or maternal and reproductive care to mothers or rural communities in poverty. These “hidden” populations are where the health need is, though. I was struck by one panelist who said, “If you want to know what health conditions need to be paid attention to in countries, look at the people on the streets.” In other words, look at what the poorest of the poor are dealing with and start there. The discussions were incredibly on-the-ground honest, and raw, which were refreshing here at UNGA with lots all of them.
Emily Smith, PhD
of big-picture ideas. The panelists also included activists from 4 countries working hard to bend the arc of justice in their communities. It reminded me that there are neighbor champions worldwide doing the hard, quiet, and persistent work of neighboring. I want to be friends with all of them. Later in the day, I attended another side event that felt like a whiplash from the previous one. It was in a super swanky venue with lots of security to even get in and tons of food. The panelists included major philanthropists and leaders of big organizations with lots of money. The discussions focused mainly on bigger-picture - UNGA cont'd on page 3
-2-
