NEW YORK CITY – Thousands of people attended a Sunday morning walk/run event here in Central Park to raise awareness for Universal Health Coverage, co-hosted by the World Health Organization and the City of New York. The “Walk the Talk: Healthcare for All Challenge” kicks off a week of high-level talks at the 74^th United Nations General Assembly, including tomorrow’s long-anticipated High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as well as the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit.

“Today we are walking for our own health. But we are also marching to demand health for all,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, at the opening of the event.

The event brought together both New York locals, UN officials, and people from all around the world to commit to health and wellness on an individual and global level. Staff from UN offices around the world such as UNICEF, WHO’s Western Pacific Regional Office and Pan-American Health Organization attended the event, and many major global health organizations such as Vital Strategies also showed up to support.

A number of world leaders also participated in the fun-run, including the President of Palau, Thomas Remengesau Jr., and Norway’s Minister of Health, Bent Høie.

The event was positioned around the larger conversation underway this week at the UN regarding both UHC and action on climate change.

Grammy-winning artist and activist Ricky Kej performed at the closing ceremony, raising awareness on climate change and hearing loss in youth. WHO estimates that over 1 billion youth are at risk of hearing loss from unsafe listening devices.

Other speakers reiterated the challenges to achieving universal health coverage.

“We are not doing enough to safeguard the future of our children, not when there is very little being done when young people reach the age of 10,” said Zoleka Mandela, activist and granddaughter of Nelson Mandela, pointing to gaps in access in healthcare, and neglect of sexual and reproductive health, injuries, and non-communicable diseases on the adolescent health agenda.

Barely 2% of current global health funding is targeted towards adolescent health. Overall, some 51-67% percent of the world’s population does not have access to universal health coverage, according to a new report released today by the World Health Organization.

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former director-general of the WHO and a founding member of the group of statesmen and stateswomen known as “The Elders”, pointed to the United States’ lack of publicly-funded healthcare and urged states to fulfill their responsibilities to “provide effective and comprehensive public health care to all citizens.”

European Union Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis gave a rousing speech along similar lines, urging US participants to push for higher health coverage and “make this country great again.”

Dr. Tedros ended the event by reiterating that universal health coverage is a “political issue.”

“By walking today,” he said, “We are asking our world leaders to honor their commitment on September 2015 when they agreed to achieve universal health coverage for all by 2030.”

Image Credits: Gabby Stern/WHO, Ricky Kej, G Ren/HP-Watch.