Extra-Budgetary Funds for COVID-19: Evidence from two years of implementation
By: Justine Hsu (World Health Organization); Hélène Barroy (World Health Organization); Richard Allen (Global Consultant on Public Finance); Fazeer Sheik Rahim, (International Monetary Fund); Tsolmon Tsilaajav (World Health Organization Regional Office for South-East...
The Health Financing Progress Matrix: assessing countries health financing systems to accelerate progress towards UHC goals
As countries implement health financing reforms to advance towards universal health coverage (UHC) goals, it becomes increasingly useful to track their health financing progress. This was highlighted by a recent workshop convened by the World Health Organization on...
It takes two to tango: enabling public facilities to participate in purchasing arrangements in Kenya
Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across the world are embracing purchasing reforms that, at their core, involve payers reimbursing providers based on outputs. Some have adopted free care policies wherein facilities are compensated for user fees forgone. Others...
Re-learning through the pandemic: India’s COVID-19 health financing response
Authors: Grace Achungura, Technical Officer (Health Financing for UHC-HCF), WHO Country Office, India Rahul Reddy, Health Systems & Financing Expert, India Mita Choudhury, Associate Professor, National Institute of Public Finance & Policy Jaidev Anand,...
Lessons from Three Countries That Have Strengthened Budget Structures and Processes to Improve Health Budget Execution
The LHSS-JLN Health Budget Learning Exchange What do Lao PDR, Malaysia, and Kenya have in common? All three countries have strengthened their budget structures and processes to enable good health budget execution. Their experiences hold valuable lessons for others...
Promising Practices That Are Helping Ministries of Health Improve Their Health Budget Execution
It’s a goal that has challenged many a health ministry: how to free up significant resources for health services by increasing health budget execution. Late last year, health sector practitioners from eight countries (Bangladesh, Ghana, Kenya, Lao PDR, Liberia,...
Supporting Country Progress Towards Better Health Budget Execution – The LHSS-JLN Health Budget Execution Learning Exchange
Public budgets continue to make up the vast majority of government funding for health, making them a cornerstone of financing for universal health coverage (UHC). Even for countries that have contribution-based insurance systems, government budgetary support...
Progressing towards CSU in the era of COVID-19 in French-speaking Africa: what are the major challenges?
Kéfilath Bello, Fadhi Dkhimi, Y-LingChi, Jean-Paul Dossou, HélèneBarroy On May 20, 2021, WHO, P4H, the Center for Global Development, the Global Financing Facility (GFF) and Collectivity have organized a webinar entitled...
Public financial management (PFM) in a pandemic: What can the experiences of Bangladesh and Indonesia during their COVID-19 response teach us about the importance of PFM?
Shamima Akhter (ThinkWell Bangladesh), Anooj Pattnaik (ThinkWell), Callum Pierce (ThinkWell), Afroja Yesmin (ThinkWell Bangladesh), Pak Trihono (ThinkWell Indonesia) In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Helal, the manager of a busy health facility in...
Policy versus the ground reality of Kenya’s free maternity program
Nirmala Ravishankar (ThinkWell), Boniface Mbuthia (ThinkWell Kenya), Stacey Orangi (KEMRI Wellcome Trust), and Edwine Barasa (KEMRI Wellcome Trust) Covid-19 threatens to reverse the progress countries have achieved in improving maternal and child survival, even as it...
Implementing UHC in the Philippines: Is the glass half full or half empty?
Christian Edward Nuevo¹, Maria Eufemia Yap¹, Matt Boxshall², & Nirmala Ravishankar² ThinkWell, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines ThinkWell, Washington DC, United States of America Correspondence to Christian Edward Nuevo (email: ian.nuevo@gmail.com)...
Policy and Implementation Insights on Provider Payment Reforms of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation
Dredge, R., Nuevo, C. E., Paterno, A. R. (2021) The Philippine Universal Health Care (UHC) Law of 2019 introduced system-level reforms on health financing, particularly for the provider payment mechanisms of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation...
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...
Partnership collaboration in the area of health financing and social health protection for UHC
1 The high-level policy goal of universal health coverage and the rights-based social health protection frameworkThe COVID-19 pandemic has increased the visibility of the importance of a social safety net in all countries, including for health. This increased...
No time to lose: we must increase budgets now for COVID-19 rollout
This blog provides information for colleagues concerned with COVID-19 immunization about the need for Ministries of Health and Ministries of Finance officials to work together to budget for COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Authors: Peter Cowley, Nathalie Vande Maele – all...