Today marks World Water Day, an opportunity to remind ourselves of the severe dearth of services and facilities that provide adequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions across the world. The figures remain stark. Two and a half billion people do not have access to basic sanitation worldwide, over one billion rely on open defecation, and […]
CSOs contribution to universal health coverage into the Post-2015 agenda
Central to the post-2015 development agenda discussions is the goal of achieving universal health coverage as a quest for better health care, a demand for equity and a promise to eliminating extreme poverty by 2030 through sustainable development. Universal health coverage is not a new phenomenon, many countries including Japan and the United Kingdom had achieved […]
Is Universal Health Coverage the magic wand that will make it all happen?
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) seems to be the goose that lays the golden egg in the current global health discussions within the new post-2015 development framework process. But will it really deliver what it promises? Or is it rather a fairytale that sounds perfect in theory but will never become a reality? Universal Health Coverage […]
Lessons from Sabir’s story: Why we aim for development and humanitarian objectives at Heartfile
Sabir was not on his bed when I entered the ward, which gave me an opportunity to go through the case notes. He suffered from a heart disease called infective (bacterial) endocarditis, a condition in which an infection ‘somewhere’ in the body can spill into the bloodstream and form vegetations or infected lumps on pre-existing […]
Heartfile.org – The Innovative Amazon.com of Healthcare Financing
When in 1995 entrepreneur Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com from his garage in Seattle (USA), fewer than 1 in 200 people worldwide had internet access and online shopping was just a year old. Today, Bezos’ innovative website has made Amazon.com the world’s largest online retailer, with $60 billion in annual sales – $170 million a day. […]
WHO Releases World Health Report 2013: Research for Universal Health Coverage
The World Health Organization launched the “World Health Report 2013: Research for Universal Health Coverage” in Beijing on August 14th, 2013. This report resonates the 2010, World Health Report on “Health Systems Financing: The path to universal coverage”. The interest in universal health coverage has only grown since then as Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director […]
Increasing the use of evidence in the design and implementation of health financing reforms
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 […]
The role of the private sector in moving towards universal coverage
Meet Majid. This 15 year old boy is the primary earner for his family in Pakistan. Majid was hit by a tractor, leaving him out of a job, with no money for an operation, and a starving family. More than 120 million people in Pakistan pay out of pocket for needed health care services. As […]
Harnessing Innovation for Universal Health Coverage
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is gaining traction as an umbrella goal of international health development, championed by the Millennium Development Goals campaign and the United Nations, but despite broad-based support for the principals underlying UHC, the road to implementation as a social policy faces numerous challenges. Pakistan’s health equity fund model, Heartfile Health Financing (HHF), […]
AfGH response to the final report of the global Thematic consultation on Health
We welcome the broad consultation organised by the governments of Botswana, Sweden, WHO and UNICEF and congratulate in particular the Task Team for the participatory process and the quality of the consultation. The report reflects well the debates that were held, building on the merits and limits of the current Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as […]