At the 10th edition of the WHO Barcelona Course on Health Financing for Universal Health Coverage, more than 50 experts, including broad representation from the Western Balkans, gathered to review effective ways of improving health financing policy and accelerating progress towards universal health coverage.
Delegations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, and Serbia were active participants in the 5-day event. Organized by the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing and co-funded by the European Union (EU), the Course took place on 19–23 September 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. It allowed participants to combine systematic thinking about health systems and health financing with an interactive, practical focus on improving health system performance through better policy analysis, design and implementation.
“The delegation from Albania was glad to have been part of the Course and appreciated the overview of key health financing principles and tools,” said Ms Nejsi Lleshi, Adviser at the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.
Ms Lleshi was accompanied by colleagues from the Ministry of Health, the national health insurance fund, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the WHO Country Office in Albania. “We are eager to see how we can use these concepts to improve health financing policy in Albania,” she added.
The Course included a practical exercise in which country teams used a diagnostic tool to identify the root causes of a key health system performance problem and then applied techniques to address the problem through health financing policy.
The Course helped many participants rethink their country’s specific health financing challenges. “Addressing irregular budget flows for the health system must be a priority in moving our country towards universal health coverage,” said Mr Zlate Mehmedovic, National Focal Point for Primary Health Care at the Ministry of Health of North Macedonia. The Macedonian delegation included colleagues from the Ministry of Health and the national health insurance fund.
The participation of these delegations was made possible by financial assistance from the EU. The EU’s support is part of a broader project to strengthen financial protection – affordable access to health care – in the Western Balkans.
As part of the project, the WHO Barcelona Office has been working closely with national experts and other health system stakeholders to monitor catastrophic and impoverishing spending on health, identify and address gaps in health coverage, and find ways of reducing the unmet need and financial hardship caused by out-of-pocket payments.
Financial protection is an indicator of the Sustainable Development Goals, part of the European Pillar of Social Rights and at the centre of the European Programme of Work, WHO/Europe’s strategic framework. Through the WHO Barcelona Office, WHO/Europe monitors financial protection in over 40 countries.
*In accordance with United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).
