Lessons from three African Countries.
Achieving Health for All, and in particular universal health coverage (UHC), will not happen without fully functioning basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services in all health care facilities. Such services are needed to provide quality care, ensure ad...herence to infection prevention and control (IPC) norms and standards and guarantee that facilities are able to provide environments that respect the dignity and human rights of all care seekers, especially mothers, newborns and children. WHO undertook a series of national situational analyses in three countries (Ghana, Ethiopia and Rwanda) to understand current barriers to change, accountability structures and measures to strengthen WASH in health care facilities and more broadly, the quality of health service delivery.
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Health systems strengthening (HSS) and health security are two pillars of universal health coverage (UHC). Investments in these areas are essential for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and are of heightened relevance given the emergence of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This... study aims to generate information on development assistance for health (DAH) for these areas, including how to track it and how funding levels align with country needs.
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This 2019 report Global health spending: A world in transition examines how countries progress towards financing UHC in a world in transition
The National Health Plan (NHP) aims to strengthen the country’s health system and pave the way towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC),choosing a path that is explicitly pro-poor. The main goal of NHP 2017-2021 is to extend access to a Basic Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) to the entir...e population by 2020 while increasing financial protection.
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The National Health Plan (NHP) aims to strengthen the country’s health system and pave the way towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC),choosing a path that is explicitly pro-poor. The main goal of NHP 2017-2021 is to extend access to a Basic Essential Package of Health Services (EPHS) to the entir...e population by 2020 while increasing financial protection.
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Promoting health and preventing disease is a critical component of the effort required to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). to date, efforts to achieve UHC have focused mostly on strengthening health systems and their capacities to provide curative care. However, experience from the COVID-19 ...pandemic has reaffirmed the need for resilient health systems, emphasizing primary health care, including preventive and promotive health and well-being.
Emerging from the eye of the storm as the global health lead agency during the pandemic, WHO is equipped with the required insights and actions for a holistic approach to “building back fairer and better” after COVID-19.
The Healthier Populations (UHP) Cluster in the African Region is designed to support Pillar 3 of WHO’s 13th Global Programme of Work (GPW13) which aims to make 1 billion people healthier by reducing health inequities, preventing diseases and injuries, addressing health determinants, and promoting partnerships for collaborative actions amongst all stakeholders.
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The 2020 Report analyzes global health spending for 190 countries from 2000 to 2018 and provides insights as to the health spending trajectory from the MDG era to the SDG era prior to the crisis of 2020. The report shows that global spending on health continually rose between 2000 and 2018 and reach...ed US$ 8.3 trillion or 10% of global GDP. The data also show that out-of-pocket spending has remained high in low and lower-middle income countries, representing greater than 40% of total health spending in 2018. We also report and summarize the data on expenditures for PHC, as well as by disease and intervention, including for immunization. The report also analyzes the available data on budget allocation in response to the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, we combine World Bank/IMF projections of the macroeconomic and fiscal impact of the crisis with an analysis of the historical determinants of health spending patterns and UHC indicators, and based on this, we draw out the likely implications of 2020 for future health spending, highlighting key policy and monitoring concerns.
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This South-East Asia Regional Strategy for Primary Health Care: 2022-2030 aims to accelerate progress in all countries of the Region towards universal health coverage (UHC), health security and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is intended to provide Member States with guid...ance on facilitating PHC-orientation through the identification of seven values and 12 strategic actions that collectively embody the philosophy and practice of PHC, enunciated in the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata and reaffirmed in the 2018 Declaration of Astana.
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This 2019 report Global health spending: A world in transition examines how countries progress towards financing UHC in a world in transition
The document is a policy brief by the NCD Alliance for the 2023 United Nations High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC). It highlights the importance of integrating non-communicable diseases (NCDs) into UHC efforts, with the goal of ensuring equitable health access worldwide.
August 2020.
In December 2018, the President launched the UHC pilot covering four strategically selected counties-Isiolo, Kisumu, Machakos and Nyeri. It isplanned that by the year 2022, all persons in Kenya will be able to use the essential services they need for their health... and wellbeing through a single unified benefit package, without the risk of financial catastrophe. Essential health products are considered an integral part of UHC andare an indispensable element for delivery ofservices andare also a requirement for qualitycare. Despite this realization, a review of the UHC pilot in September 2019 established that whereas the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) was able to fill up to 80% of pharmaceutical items, the order fill rate for medical supplies was less than 50%for level 2 and 3 facilities and as low as 30%for level 4 and 5 facilities.
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As the culminating volume in the DCP3 series, volume 9 will provide an overview of DCP3 findings and methods, a summary of messages and substantive lessons to be taken from DCP3, and a further discussion of cross-cutting and synthesizing topics across the first eight volumes. The introductory chapte...rs (1-3) in this volume take as their starting point the elements of the Essential Packages presented in the overview chapters of each volume. First, the chapter on intersectoral policy priorities for health includes fiscal and intersectoral policies and assembles a subset of the population policies and applies strict criteria for a low-income setting in order to propose a "highest-priority" essential package. Second, the chapter on packages of care and delivery platforms for universal health coverage (UHC) includes health sector interventions, primarily clinical and public health services, and uses the same approach to propose a highest priority package of interventions and policies that meet similar criteria, provides cost estimates, and describes a pathway to UHC.
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The objective of Critical Considerations and Actions for Achieving Universal Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Context of Universal Health Coverage through a Primary Health Care Approach is to provide guidance to WHO Member States for ensuring progress towards universal access to compr...ehensive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in the context of primary health care (PHC)- and universal health coverage (UHC)-related policy and strategy reforms.
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Jordan has more than 3 million migrants (one third of the country's total population) and has witnessed three major waves of refugees in its modern history: Palestinians (1948 and 1967), Iraqis (1990 and 2000) and Syrians (since 2010). Under its commitment to achieving universal health coverage (UHC...), Jordan has been continually supporting vulnerable populations such as refugees and migrants by offering subsidized access to essential health services.
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The African Region has been experiencing unprecedented health challenges due to the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which have compounded the already difficult task the Region was facing in moving towards universal health coverage (UHC) attainment.
This checklist is for any organization or person supporting the routine use of evidence in
the process of policy-making. Evidence-informed policy-making (EIPM) is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and universal health coverage (UHC). Its importance is emphasized in WH...O’s Thirteenth General Programme of
Work 2019–2023 (GPW13). This checklist was developed by the WHO Secretariat of Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) to assist its Member countries in institutionalizing EIPM. Government agencies (i.e. the staff of the Ministry of Health),
knowledge intermediaries and researchers focused on strengthening EIPM will find in this checklist some key steps and tools to help their work. While the health sector is a key target group for EVIPNet, this tool can be applied by stakeholders from
different social sectors
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The South African WHO Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) 2023–2027 focuses on four key strategic priorities based on the country’s health needs and disease epidemiology, while also considering the need for building resilient health systems for UHC and health security in the post pandemic period....
These include:
1. augment health systems strengthening reforms to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage.
2. address the quadruple burden of diseases and promote well-being across the life course in view of achieving global targets.
3. build health systems resilience and strengthen health emergency preparedness and response capacities.
4. enhance multisectoral collaboration and global partnerships for concerted action on health and its determinants.
In order to harness its expertise across its three levels, namely: the WHO Country Office (WCO), WHO Regional Office for Africa, and WHO headquarters, WHO will work closely and collaboratively with the Government of South Africa to implement the 2023–2027 strategic priorities.
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The aim of this guidance is to enhance the capacity of health care facilities to protect and improve the health of their target communities in an unstable and changing climate; and to empower health care facilities to be environmentally sustainable, by optimizing the use of resources and minimizing ...the release of waste into the environment. Climate resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities contribute to high quality of care and accessibility of services, and by helping reduce facility costs also ensure better affordability. They are, therefore, an important component of universal health coverage (UHC).
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Policy Note #4: Myanmar Health Systems in Transition Policy Notes Series
Protecting people from financial hardship when they fall ill is one of the two key elements of universal health coverage (UHC). In practice, this means that the majority of health care costs have to be met from government ...revenues so that services are provided free or with a small affordable co-payment. The alternative is to rely on pre-payment through some form of insurance, where risks are pooled across all contributors.
The challenge in Myanmar is that at present neither approach is functioning. Government spending is too low to meet people’s health needs and the proportion of the population covered by insurance is negligible. As a result, families face a stark choice in the event of serious illness: either defer treatment and face the consequences, or incur what can amount to catastrophic expenses and a downward spiral of disinvestment and poverty.
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Providing financial protection to the population for larger health care expenses arising out of hospital-based care, has come forth as a crucial element in the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through the recent health financing reforms of low-and middle-income countries (LMIC). Over th...e last decade, the state of Assam in India, in an effort to ensure equitable health care access, has formulated multiple health protection schemes at different points of time. This has resulted in several such schemas which have had their own objectives, designs, institutional setups, and governance mechanisms. Moreover, they have reportedly been operating in relative silos.
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