Vaccination targets the high risk groups in Malaysia
Vaccination targets the high risk groups in Malaysia. The scheduling process of COVID-19 vaccine includes taxi and e-hailing drivers as well as p-hailing riders, involving over 50,000 individuals in the service. For more information, please...
Malawi adds an additional $30 million for COVID-19 Vaccine rollout
The government of Malawi received an additional $30million to support the acquisition and deployment of safe, affordable and effective COVID-19 vaccines. This is an additional financing for the existing Malawi’s COVID-19 emergency response and health...
Civil Society petitions Malawi government on $40m for COVID-19 vaccines
A petition by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) was delivered to the Malawi government through parliament lobbying for a supplementary budget for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, sufficient to reach 11 million individuals. The CSOs led by Aids Healthcare...
Thai cabinet approves 42-billion-baht for business affected by COVID
Thai cabinet has approved a 42-billion-baht package of financial assistance for people and businesses affected by the government's partial Covid-19 lockdown, currently implemented in Bangkok and nine other provinces to contain the coronavirus outbreak. For more...
Philippines now covers cartridge based PCR tests
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) is now paying for SARS-CoV-2 testing using cartridge-based polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests. The new benefit package ranges from Php 1,059 to Php 2,287 and will be paid directly to the accredited testing...
Singapore approves $451,000 for people under vaccine injury scheme
Singapore approves a total of $451,000 to cover more than 100 individuals under the vaccine injury scheme. Of total applications, 102 applications were assessed by the Clinical Panel to have met the qualifying criteria for Vaccine Injury Financial Assistance...
Thai cabinet temporarily approves cut of social security contributions for the informal sector workers
Thai cabinet has approved 60 percent reduction of contributions for informal sector workers or people who are insured under section 40 of the Social Security Act for six months, aiming for mitigating the impact of the COVID-19 situation. For more...
Public sector reforms gather momentum and Malawi introduces revenue generation in health facilities
The Malawi health sector is predominantly donor funded (about 58% of the total health expenditure). To ensure reliable and sustainable financing of the health sector, the government of Malawi has embarked on a number of reforms through innovative health financing. One...
Sovereign creditors call for a creditor committee to be formed to restructure Ethiopia’s debt
Ethiopia plans to seek a restructuring of its sovereign debt under a new G20 common framework and is looking at all the available options, the country’s finance ministry announced earlier this year. The Paris Club of sovereign creditors has now called for a...
Equity focused QI for effective UHC: the Ethiopia healthcare quality initiative
An analysis published in BMJ describes the Ethiopia healthcare quality initiative and lessons learned to inform the way Quality Improvement (QI) is designed, implemented, and how success is defined. The authors argue that QI must move beyond only...
Mauritania: Amending Finance Law 2021, the prority to health!
The rectifying finance bill adopted by Mauritanian MPs on June 29 gives pride of place to the health sector. Indeed, this bill provides for budget cuts in almost all ministerial departments, with the exception of the one in charge of social welfare issues. The bill...
Mali: CANAM balances its duty of accountability with the need to strengthen its action
In Bamako, as in other parts of Mali, many citizens are unhappy that certain medicines are not covered by the Assurance Maladie Obligatoire (AMO). This week, the Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Maladie (CANAM) claims to be hard at work revising the list of drugs...
Leveraging Primary Health Care Systems for COVID-19: Insights from Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program
The International Institute for Primary Health Care – Ethiopia (IIFPHC-E) is offering a new course entitled “Leveraging Primary Health Care Systems for COVID-19: Insights from Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program (HEP).” This short course is free for all and...
Evidence-based recommendations for Armenia to improve the Basic Benefit Package for UHC
The World Bank staff and external contributors have produced a report titled “Reforming the Basic Benefits Package in Armenia: Modeling Insights from the Health Interventions Prioritization Tool”. The full text of the report is available here, and on this page (see...
Can Armenia Better Leverage its Basic Benefit Package for Universal Health Coverage?
Nicole Fraser, Adanna Chukwuma, Marianna Koshkakaryan, Lusine Yengibaryan, Xiaohui Hou, Tommy Wilkinson, Christina Meyer When Armenia introduced its first Basic Benefits Package (BBP) in 1997, the average life expectancy at birth was 70 years and the under-five...