Public financing for UHC: towards implementation

Overview

From 31 October through 2 November 2018, WHO’s Department of Health Systems Governance and Financing convened the third in a series of meetings related to the implementation of the Collaborative Agenda on Fiscal Space, Public Financial Management and Health Financing. Discussions and presentations centred on practical issues countries face in implementing policies and reforms to institutionalize and sustain progress towards UHC through the reliance on pre-paid and pooled public resources.

• Collaborative Agenda on Fiscal Space, Public Financial Management and Health Financing

Some of the key messages from the meeting include:

• Need to continue to make the case for the centrality of public financing for LMICs to make progress towards UHC.
• PFM is a key enabling factor for health financing reform implementation through strengthening and leading to more credible and realistic health budgets.
• Engagement with the political process and understanding the politics of UHC reform is an important component to enable implementation of health financing reforms.
• The structure of the overall and health sector budget could be a central enabler for health financing policy implementation, in particular for strategic purchasing, and health stakeholders need to engage more on the topic.
• The health sector should be more active during devolution processes to ensure effective implementation of health financing reforms.

This meeting report provides a full summary of the overall key messages and way forward for this collaborative agenda, as well as session-by-session briefs.