This week in Geneva, the global community has gathered for the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly. As we recently passed the 1000 day count down to the end of the current Millennium Development goals. The post-MDG framework is at the forefront of this year’s Assembly.
Over the past three years, UHC has been gaining traction as an overarching framework for the post-2015 development agenda. In 2010, The World Health Organization (WHO) published the World Health Report on Health Financing. In 2011, the United Nations passed a Resolution on UHC. In 2012, Thailand hosted the 2012 PMAC on UHC, and at last year’s WHA Dr. Margaret Chan called UHC “the single most important tool in public health.” Key agencies like the WHO, the World Bank, the ILO, prominent universities that advise them, and most importantly – the countries themselves – have committed to and are moving toward UHC, with innovative models and illuminating experimentation.
However, as UHC continues to gain traction with a global audience, countries are struggling to navigate their own political and legal frameworks to determine the best way forward with limited resources and capacity for implementation.
Increasing the use of evidence
There is a growing volume of literature on health financing as UHC gains momentum across low- and middle-income countries, yet there is often a disconnect between policy and the evidence. In order to increase the accessibility of peer reviewed journal evidence for a range of stakeholders engaging in the policy process, Save the Children UK (SCUK) andResults for Development Institute (R4D) are partnering to make evidence more available to policymakers, practitioner, researchers, civil society and other stakeholders.
In May 2013, SCUK and R4D will merge UHC Forward and the Equitable Health Financing (EHF) tool to increase the use of evidence in the design and implementation of health financing reforms. Both platforms aim to make evidence and information related to health financing and UHC more accessible. As such, UHC Forward provides a perfect partner for theEquitable Health Financing tool.
Equitable Health Financing Tool
The EHF tool is based on a systematic review of the literature, followed by a thematic analysis to summarise the impact of seven common health financing mechanisms on five common health system goals: Increase use, improve quality, promote equity, generate revenue and reduce poverty. Eleven country indicators were used to provide information on the relevance of each study to a user’s context. The e-tool provides interactive graphical summaries that allow users to assess with a single snapshot: relevant studies, the heterogeneity of evidence, where key evidence is lacking and how closely the evidence matches their own context.
-Ends-
Co-Authored by:
Gina Lagomarsino
MD for Results for Development
Simon Wright
Head of Child Survival for Save the Children UK
This blog post first appeared on UHC Forward Blog and has been cross-posted from: http://uhcforward.org/blog/2013/may/21/increasing-use-evidence-design-and-implementation-health-financing-reforms
Ihtiram Khattak says
Talking specifically in “Pakistan context”, where the public sector Healthcare and Health delivery institutions are plagued by inefficiencies and patronage, Health Equity Financing seems to be the only vehicle that can take the 180 million populous nation towards UHC.
Nat Yousaf says
I feel very strongly about healthcare financing. I really think that this is a powerful healthcare feature with transformative potential that can really help countries struggling to meet global health challenges. I think SCUK and R4D is an excellent collaboration and I wish them the best in this.