The fifth WHO Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage for Low- and Middle-Income Countries took place in Tunis, Tunisia from 18-22 June 2018.
The course was structured in line with WHO’s approach to thinking and analyzing health financing policy and its role in ensuring progress towards universal health coverage. Reaching households outside the formal sector is an important theme of the course, which is built around the following core topics:
- Raising revenues – opportunities and constraints
- Pooling health revenues – the cost of fragmentation
- Purchasing – more health for the money through payment reforms
- Designing a benefit package – equity, affordability and transparency
- Health financing and public finance management – enabling implementation
- Coordinating reform – aligning policy instruments with policy objectives
During the course, participants used the WHO health financing policy framework to analyse and reflect on their own health systems performance, assess the problems it faces, and discuss ideas with professionals from a wide range of countries.
The course is designed for policy makers, advisors and analysts in the health and social sectors, senior managers of service provider organizations and health insurance funds, and other relevant actors in government, the private sector and civil society. This year there were more than 400 applicants representing 80 countries. Of these, 67 participants from 36 countries were selected and participated in the course.
Participants on the course were selected to ensure representation from a diverse set of stakeholders including: senior policy makers from Ministries of Health, Ministries of Finance, government health insurance organisations, bilateral and multilateral development organisations, and civil society representatives.
The Health Financing Policy team, part of the Department of Health Systems Governance and Financing at WHO, Geneva designed and delivered the course.