- Source: Dorjsuren Bayarsaikhan, WHO
On 15 May, 2014, P4H/CD organized a meeting of P4H partners (ILO and WHO) on Mongolia`s support. Mr Hiroshi Yamabana (ILO Geneva), Ms Emmanuelle St-Pierre Guilbault (ILO Geneva), Dr Soe Nyunt U (WHO Mongolia), Dr D.Bayarsaikhan (WHO Geneva), Mr Claude Meyer (P4H/CD) participated in the meeting. Dr Soe and Dr Bayarsaikhan briefly updated that P4H partner (GIZ and WHO) collaboration in Mongolia focused on strengthening of social health insurance which is new government`s priority.
As of now, a health insurance development strategy for 2013-2022 was developed and launched in August, 2013. Following this an international conference on health insurance experience and high level policy meeting on implementation of the strategy were held in September 2013. At the high level policy meeting, the Asian Development Bank announced their plan to support social health insurance capacity building as part of their health sector development project (HSDP) phase 5 with funding support from the government of Japan.
Following the strategy, government and parliament members have initiated health insurance law amendments to be presented and discussed in the Parliament in 2014. Apparently, the draft proposals are not shared widely neither available in English. However, the government is keen to obtain inputs from international experts. According to Dr Soe, it is a critical moment for P4H partners to be involved in this process and provide technical support in making new law amendments. Dr Soe discussed this issue in the ILO Office in Beijing, which is responsible for ILO program and collaboration with Mongolia. The ILO representative has indicated interest and willingness to collaborate in this area. It was confirmed by the ILO experts in Geneva. During the meeting, it was agreed that the WHO Mongolia office will provide new updates and share draft documents when they are available. There is also interest and ongoing discussion between WHO and GIZ experts to explore opportunities to continue to support the implementation of the health insurance development strategy in 2014 as suited to the need of the Ministry of Health.
