According to materials prepared by Triin Habicht, a renown health economist from Estonia (WHO consultant) and her colleague Kaija Kasekamp (University of Tartu), the Estonian Insurance Fund started financing nursing services in assisted living facilities since 2020...
Health System Performance Assessment Framework in Estonia as part of Structural Reforms
Since 2017, the European Commission has provided expertise to help design over 1000 reform projects in 27 Member States through the Structural Reform Support Programme. As of 2021, the Technical Support Instrument (TSI), its successor, continues to support reforms...
International Partnership Recommendations for Health Sector Reforms in Uzbekistan
International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) has published a 2021 report titled “Reforming healthcare in Uzbekistan: what role for the international community?” available in English, Uzbek and Russian languages here This report examines the state of the...
Smaller firms receives COVID wage subsidy in New Zealand
New Zealand paid over $876 million for the Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme so far to support more than a quarter of the country's employees affected by COVID-19. Of the 781,364 jobs are covered under the scheme, 14 percent were for self-employed workers....
Senegal: a resilient health insurance model in times of Covid-19
In recent years, Senegal has embarked on several strategies to finance healthcare, with the risk of a certain fragmentation. Visit strategic plan for the development of universal health coverage 2013-2017 aims to cover at least 75% ...
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...
Nepal budget 2021/22 revised: 6 highlights you should know
Nepal amends annual budget plan 2021/22. Following the revisions, an additional Rs 5 billion has been allocated for Covid-19 vaccine purchasing. For social security provisions, there have been added two new allowances: Rs 3,000 per month for families...
Singapore provides additional subsidies to Child Development Account in September
Singapore provides a top-up of $200 to all Singaporean children aged between 0 and 6 years in 2021. The top-up will be added to their Child Development Account (CDA) from mid-Sep 2021. Approximately 250,000 children will receive this benefit. This top-up is part...
West Australian government spends $1.9 billion on health system in 2021-22 budget
West Australia plans to allocate $1.9 billion to improve the capacity of the public health system, especially staffing in the upcoming 2021-22 budget. Approximately $1 billion will be directed to health and hospital services. Almost $500 million will be allocated to...
Indonesia allocates Rp255.3 trillion for health in 2022 budget draft
The Indonesian government has provided Rp255.3 trillion, or 9.4 percent of the total planned state expenses of Rp2,708.7 trillion, for the health sector in the 2022 State Budget draft. The health budget will be spent for the COVID-19 pandemic, the health system...
The Lao government supports returning migrant workers
Laos has spent over LAK 15.82 billion on aiding the Lao workers who returned from Thailand since March 2020. The government assistance consists of food, transportation, state quarantine centers, and other necessities. The Lao government has cooperated with the Thai...
Laos plans to purchase vaccine for 2022
Laos plans to purchase additional Covid-19 vaccines in 2022 because vaccines from the COVAX initiative will be ended by this year. Currently, a total of 1,387,083 people received the first dose or 18.9% of the total population. While the second dose vaccinations...
A new report published on aligning health and decentralization reform in Ukraine
As part of Health policy paper series, WHO Regional Office for Europe in collaboration with WHO Country Office in Ukraine published a policy brief titled “Aligning health and decentralization reform in Ukraine” (2021). Considering that Ukrainian decentralization...
Thai cabinet approves B14.5 bn for coronavirus frontliners
Thai Cabinet approves an additional 14.5 billion baht, aiming to support the medical workers under the Covid-19 pandemic. This budget will be divided into two parts: approximately 12.7 billion baht will be provided to medical workers...
Multi-Regional Landscape Study and Analysis of Select West African Countries available
New West Africa regional document available: Recognizing that a healthy population promotes economic development, resilience, and strength, many governments have started pursuing a universal health coverage (UHC) agenda. The international community, national...