This Thursday, August 16, 2017 saw the first meeting of Functional Team No. 2 (“integrated management of financial access and quality of care”) of the Burkina Faso Ministry of Health. The aim of its leader Dr Pierre Yameogo, Director of Health Establishments, was to establish initial contact with participants, to establish the role and functioning of this group, and to tackle the analysis of two key documents produced between May and June 2017. These two documents develop two of the three components of strategic purchasing in the health sector, according to the sector’s vision: that relating to pricing and payment of services (in the context of the RAMU in particular) and that relating to the management of health services (District Management Team and Regional Health Department teams). Discussions were highly technical and benefited from the input of members (including an AMU representative) and invited resource persons, including the DUE & WHO, as well as the NGOs TdH, HELP and ACF, which are involved in monitoring the effectiveness of care in the implementation of payment exemption measures for pregnant women and children under 5. It is interesting to note that this work is already the implementation of part of the National Financing Strategy, for which the document is in the process of being adopted.
