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...
Financing Ethiopia’s Primary Care to 2035: A Model Projecting Resource Mobilization and Costs
This paper presents the results of modeling to project Ethiopia’s future resources to finance primary health care and compare them with the likely costs of providing primary care according to current government plans. The paper explores different scenarios related to...
Allocating resources to support universal health coverage (UHC): policy processes and implementation in Malawi
The optimal use of resources to maximise health outcomes and attain Universal Health Coverage is very crucial especially in low and middle income countries (LMICs) where resources are limited. This requires improved efficiency in the distribution of resources across...
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...
Community-based Health Insurance Program in Ethiopia: Assessing Institutional and Financial Sustainability
This study examines the financial sustainability of CBHI schemes, focusing on schemes that have been operational for more than two years, and provides descriptions of institutional structures, human resource capacity, engagement and commitment of key stakeholders, and...
Ethiopia’s Community-based Health Insurance: A Step on the Road to Universal Health Coverage
In the last 10 years, Africa has witnessed a renewed interest in Community-based Health Insurance (CBHI) schemes as countries leverage communities to expand risk-pooling coverage to informal sectors and the rural population. Among African countries, Ethiopia’s...
The Effect of Ethiopia’s Community-Based Health Insurance Scheme on Revenues and Quality of Care
This paper relies on a difference-in-differences approach applied to both panel and cross-section data. We find that CBHI-affiliated facilities experience a 111% increase in annual outpatient visits and annual revenues increase by 47%. Increased revenues are used to...
Universal Health Coverage for Inclusive and Sustainable Development : Country Summary Report for Ethiopia
A low-income country, Ethiopia has made impressive progress in improving health outcomes. The Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation reported that Ethiopia has achieved Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4, three years ahead of target, with under-5 mortality...
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...