Following up to the 5th WHO Montreux Collaborative meeting, a meeting report which provides an overview of the agenda, speakers, and detailed summaries of the technical sessions including the Q&A discussions was recently published. The draft meeting report can be found here. It is designed to provide a record of the proceedings but we also hope the information contained within the report reminds us of the important policy learnings and key findings that can inform our work to rebuild and strengthen health financing and PFM systems to make them more responsive to future shocks.
In addition, a short blog was published this week on the IMF PFM blog. It provides a useful summary of the Meeting’s key discussions and emerging learnings on how to integrate good practices that emerged during the COVID-19 crisis into regular budget processes. The blog can be found here.
Last, two documents, both co-developed between WHO and World Bank teams, were recently released as a direct follow-on to Montreux sessions. The first is related to Direct Facility Financing. The brief DFF: concept and role for UHC explains both the global relevance of this financing approach and how countries can flexibly shape implementation to the needs of their unique environments. Click here to download the full document.
The second document is focused on budget execution. The working paper Budget execution: concepts, trends and policy issues highlights budget execution issues in the health sector in LMICs and sets the scene for a productive dialogue between health and finance to address the problem. The report is available here.
By Hélène BARROY (WHO)
