In a bid to make healthcare more accessible and reduce the time in service delivery, the Government of Australia is investing 100 million AUD to advance medical technology in the country. The investment is to improve diagnosis and treatment in three specific areas...

Urgency to transform fragmented health system (UHC Act and Covid-19)
The Philippines has seen relatively more challenges due to the Covid-19 Pandemic than perhaps its other South-east Asian counterparts. Despite the crafting of the historic Universal Health Care (UHC) Law over two years ago, the Pandemic has exposed several gaps in...

Budget 2021: S$4.8b of S$11b Covid-19 Resilience Package for public health
The Singapore Government's commitment to safeguarding public health and the future of its citizens especially in the wake of COVID 19 can be seen in the over 40% share of this year’s Budget that goes to the COVID-19 Resilience Package. Mr. Heng Swee Keat, the...
Domestic expenditure increases a 33% in 2020 due to Covid
The Budget Execution Report, released on February 15th, shows a relevant increase in domestic expenditure in health in Mozambique, from 18.985 million MT (263 M$) to 25.318 million MT (351 M$), a +33% change. This prioritization of health with domestic...

N$72.8 billion budget for 2020/21 financial year announced
The Minister of Finance, Iipumbu Shiimi on Wednesday tabled the national budget for the financial year 2020/21 totalling N$72.8 billion from N$66.5 billion budgeted in the 2019/20 financial year. Shiimi in a budget statement said the single-year budget reflects the...

Universal health coverage and COVID-19 preparedness and response in Asia and the Pacific
Authors: Soonman KWON and Eunkyoung KIM Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted all aspects of our global society and economies and progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), further worsening structural fragilities and deepening inequalities (1)....

Webinar: Assessing health financing systems with the Health Financing Progress Matrix: a focus on country implementation
Until recently, there was no standard assessment of a country’s health financing system, in terms of the alignment of institutions and policies with good practice. WHO’s newly developed Health Financing Progress Matrix fills this gap. The HFPM is both an...

Webinar: Assessing health financing systems with the Health Financing Progress Matrix: a focus on country implementation
Until recently, there was no standard assessment of a country’s health financing system, in terms of the alignment of institutions and policies with good practice. WHO’s newly developed Health Financing Progress Matrix fills this gap. The HFPM is both an...

Webinar: More money for health services: what is the role of PFM in the “new normal”?
Historically, public financial management (PFM) has been overlooked in academic and policy discussions on the availability of domestic resources. However, there is now a growing body of evidence that shows the impact of PFM processes on the quality and volume of...

Myanmar established fund to purchase COVID-19 vaccines
The National-Level Central Committee on Prevention, Control and Treatment of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on 30-12-2020 formed a Fund Management Sub-committee on the Purchase of COVID-19 Vaccines. The sub-committee has opened the COVID-19 Vaccination Fund at...
Myanmar’s health transitions
On the journey towards the universal health coverage (UHC), there is no one-size-fits-all formula. As countries strive to attain the goals of UHC via their own unique maps and routes, it is essential to regularly assess the progress against the context specific to a...

Global Spending on Health: Weathering the Storm / Public launch event: 9 December 2020 – 15:00 – 16:30 CET
Public launch event - 9th December 2020 - 15:00 – 16:30 CET The report “Global Spending on Health: Weathering the Storm” to be released at this event is based on the newly updated Global Health Expenditure Database (GHED). It is the 4th in a series of...

COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor, Republic of Korea
The Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies published a report on the Health System Response Monitor (HSRM). It is designed to collect and organize up-to-date information on how countries are responding to the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19)...

If you’re not ready, you need to adapt: lessons for managing public finances from the COVID-19 response
Hélène Barroy, Federica Margini, Joseph Kutzin (Word Health Organization), Nirmala Ravishankar (ThinkWell), Moritz Piatti-Fünfkirchen (World Bank Group), Srinivas Gurazada (PEFA), Chris James (OECD) COVID-19 has been a well-recognized stress test for public financial...

Labor-Tax-Financed Social Health Insurance: a wrong track for LMICs? Watch the webinar!
The video of the first webinar of the WHO HGF series organized in partnership with the P4H Network and Emerging Voices, "The Case Against Labor-Tax-Financed Social Health Insurance for Low- And Low-Middle-Income Countries" is now available! In low and...