WHO and North Macedonia’s Ministry of Health (MoH) embarked on a reform process to enhance the stewardship function of the MoH to enable better health care for all.
The initiative, which began with an assessment of the MoH, related agencies and key stakeholder institutions, requires an understanding of their roles and responsibilities, as well as how they are organized and staffed, and how they operate. It includes analysis of existing stewardship functions such as policy, planning, monitoring and evaluation, with follow-up, regulation and resource generation, in particular ensuing an adequate health workforce.
Minister of Health Dr Fatmir Medzxiti emphasized a strong commitment to reform, saying, “With the aim of introducing effective reforms leading to concrete and tangible results, it is of key importance to enhance our own capacity, to enhance our good governance and stewardship functions. We thank the World Health Organization for their support in this initiative which is being launched at exactly the right time.”
The results of the reform, ongoing throughout the year, will be more equitable access to health care, improved health outcomes and better financial protection for all citizens, as a means of implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health care.
Commitment to improvement
Dr Anne Johansen, Head of the WHO Office in North Macedonia, highlighted the novel approach of WHO to health-system reforms.
“We have designed this initiative to support the sustainable institutional capacity development of the health sector, which sets it apart from the traditional approach of focusing solely on health-systems strengthening projects,” she said.
“We aim to establish a strong foundation for developing the Ministry's stewardship functions to a point where it can continuously improve the performance of the entire health system.”
The results of this rapid assessment were presented and discussed at the induction meeting alongside the introduction of the initiative. The expected outcome is a sustainable MoH performing at its best, capable of adjusting its own policies and measures as dictated by circumstances as well as by the needs of health-care recipients.
Looking at the proposed reform from an EU perspective, Ms Biljana Celeska, State Counsellor for European Integration at the MoH, emphasized the need for “special training for the ‘higher echelon’ employees at the Ministry of Health and the need for educating all Ministry employees on public health issues”.