Life after the MDGs
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2000 are set to expire in 2015, so it is not surprising that a vigorous debate has started on what should succeed them. The UN has established a website dedicated to this and a series of thematic consultations, managed by specialized UN agencies, are now underway. Within the global public health community, there is also a tinge of anxiety that the strong share of health in the current MDGs (three out of eight are health related) could be diluted as other pressing themes such as climate change rise to the top of the agenda.
The Week in Headlines
UHC Forward's Weekly Roundup of Headlines from Around the Globe
Governments around the world are engaging in serious political and technical discussions on how to expand health coverage. Still others are considering such reforms, but are struggling to navigate the legal, financial, and political frameworks of their countries to determine the best path towards reform.
Below is a list of UHC-related headlines from around the world:
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General News
Sustainability of Universal Health Coverage: Five Continents, Four Perspectives: Value in Health published a special supplement on global health systems and health policy.
Ensuring health in universal health coverage: A column by James D.
“Ah, Les Indigents:" Can Communities Play a Role in Identifying the Poor?
The short film, “Ah, les Indigents,” documents an operational research project, led by Dr. Valéry Ridde from the University of Montreal Hospital Research Center, that focuses on community-based targeting in the district of Ourgaye, Burkina Faso in 2007.
The film was released in July 2012 and was shown at the “Equity in Universal Coverage: How to Reach the Poorest” workshop held in Marrakech, Morocco from September 24-27, 2012. In order to share the film with colleagues and generate additional discussion, the EC Track of the JLN organized a viewing of the film at Results for Development Institute.
As background, the government of Burkina Faso launched the Bamako Initiative (BI) in 1993 to increase access to primary health care. As part of this process, user fees were applied to primary level public health facilities (CSPS) and a basic package of integrated services was applied to the CSPS.
The Week in Headlines
UHC Forward's Weekly Roundup of Headlines from Around the Globe
Governments around the world are engaging in serious political and technical discussions on how to expand health coverage.
The Road to Universal Health Coverage: A Documentary on Health Financing
In May 2012, AIM-ZCABT and the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WHO WPRO) released this documentary film on universal health coverage that tackles the complex issues surrounding people's access to Universal Health Care with emphasis on the situation of Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines.
Universal Health Coverage is in sync with the new geopolitical reality
Heartfile launches a new e-Forum
Heartfile recently launched a new e-Forum, which provides a discussion platform to the global health and development community through news updates, commentaries and resources relating to global and national health policies.
Check out Heartfile's most recent blog post by Professor Wim Van Damme, senior lecturer in Public Health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium on universal health coverage:
*Last week the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on Universal Health Coverage, apparently with broad support from the Global South and North. That is no coincidence. In my opinion, UHC’s unique selling proposition is its obvious appeal to middle-income countries, BRICs and other emerging powers. Countries like Indonesia, Brazil, China, India, South-Africa, Mexico, Thailand, … are among the biggest advocates of UHC and for good reason.
The Week in Headlines
UHC Forward's Weekly Roundup of Headlines from Around the Globe
Governments around the world are engaging in serious political and technical discussions on how to expand health coverage. Still others are considering such reforms, but are struggling to navigate the legal, financial, and political frameworks of their countries to determine the best path towards reform.
UHC Forward is taking a short break over the holidays, but will return on Monday, January 7, 2013 with the first roundup of the latest headlines from around the Globe.
Below is a list of UHC-related headlines from around the world:
General News
Active vs. passive identification of the poorest: Is there a preferred approach?: Countries face many challenges in designing and implementing successful health care policies and programs to reach the poorest.
Active vs. passive identification of the poorest: Is there a preferred approach?
Countries face many challenges in designing and implementing successful health care policies and programs to reach the poorest. Although most countries have introduced exemption and waiver programs aimed at removing or mitigating the impact of user fees for the poorest, many of these programs fall short of achieving their intended effect. Lack of clarity around who the poor are, where they live, and their movement in and out of poverty often result in errors of inclusion where the non-poor benefit from services that are meant for the poor, and errors of exclusion where the target population is missed.
Additional factors that add to the already difficult task of reaching the poor include:
- Lack of strong information, education and communication strategies, which means that the poor often remain unaware of programs and services that are intended to reach them.
- Providers who are unclear about eligibility criteria do not extend services to the right populations.
The Week in Headlines
UHC Forward's Weekly Roundup of Headlines from Around the Globe
Governments around the world are engaging in serious political and technical discussions on how to expand health coverage.
From Scheme to System—How can we better leverage RBF to strengthen health purchasing?
When results-based financing, or in particular, supply-side pay-for-performance schemes, became the new “it-girl” in health financing, some of us looked on with a bit of amusement because what we knew as health care provider payment was dressed up in sexy new clothes. We were all familiar with RBF programs such as those in Rwanda and Burundi, which brought incentives and accountability to health systems devastated by conflict or other crises. But was this approach relevant to countries such as Ghana and Kyrgyzstan that have health purchasing and provider payment systems that are already relatively mature? The amusement morphed into a conceptual divide as a number of new RBF pilots emerged that seemed either to ignore, or in the worst cases, go against, these existing health purchasing arrangements.