Monitoring financial protection
It is critical to measure and monitor financial protection to assess progress towards universal health coverage (UHC). Financial protection is about detaching people’s direct payments for health services and products from their ability to pay. Because such payments are part of the health financing landscape in all countries, they can be a source of financial hardship everywhere at all income levels. Understanding if this is happening, to what extent, why, and who is particularly affected is critical to guide evidence-informed policies and actions.
To support countries in this process and contribute to monitoring UHC, WHO, across all levels of the organization, is committed to:
- Supporting Member States in monitoring financial protection in health to track financial hardship using SDGs and SDG-related indicators and regional adaptations where available. Estimates are subject to a country consultation and disseminated through databases from WHO and other UN agencies and international organizations.
- Producing global reports on monitoring UHC every two years in collaboration with the World Bank and featuring regional context-specific analysis led by WHO regional offices.
- Building and strengthening national capacity on monitoring financial protection through training workshops, building up collaborations between the Ministry of Health and National Statistical Offices with the following two objectives: creating awareness in the countries on the importance of monitoring financial protection for evidence-informed policies towards UHC and the potential efficiencies in monitoring jointly with the National Statistical Office and other international organizations where relevant.