Fourth Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage for Low- and Middle-Income Countries
12-16 June 2017 | Barcelona, Spain
Overview
Fantastic course. Well-structured, informative and engaging. The facilitators were amazing, approachable and attentive. Having participants from diverse countries share their experience on health financing strategies for UHC added to the overall learning experience. I am confident that I can approach my research on strategic purchasing arrangements with renewed knowledge, vigor and critical thinking. This is a must do course for any budding health economist like myself!
The fourth WHO Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage for Low- and Middle-Income Countries took place in Barcelona, Spain from 12-16 June 2017. Forty seven participants from nineteen countries came together for this one-week-long training course to discuss how health financing policy can be used to improve health system performance in support of universal health coverage.
The course focused specifically on the context of low- and middle-income countries and complements the Barcelona Course on Health Financing which focuses on the WHO European Region.
The course is relevant to my work in the Ministry of Finance because it helped me to get insights on what fiscal policies we can prepare to encourage and support the health system. It gave me a better understanding of the health systems and UHC, and how to better collaborate with the Ministry of Health by learning about Health Financing from their perspective.
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. During the course, participants used a 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 material is extremely relevant for my current work because in Nigeria we are currently going through a health financing reform that will put us in the direction towards UHC. The interaction with the faculties made the course more practical and clear. I had a lot of burning questions before I came here and all of them were satisfactorily answered.
Dr Frances Nwanneka ILIKA USAID/Abt Associates Nigeria
Robert Ramos
Reaching households outside the formal sector was an important theme, which built around the following core topics:
- Raising revenues – strategic issues for policy makers
- Pooling health revenues – minimising fragmentation to maximise performance
- Purchasing – more health for the money through payment reforms
- Benefit package consideration – equity, efficiency, financial protection and transparency
- Health financing and public finance management – addressing the bottlenecks
- Coordinating reform – aligning multiple policy instruments with system goals
The Health Financing Policy team, part of the Department of Health Systems Governance and Financing at WHO, Geneva designed and delivered the course.
Keynote speakers were:
- Dr Midori de Habich Rospigliosi, former Minister of Health in Peru
- Professor Eyitayo Lambo, former Minister of Health in Nigeria
Keynote presentations
Midori de Habich Rospigliosi
Eyitayo Lambo
Questions and answers
Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage for Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Previous courses:
- Third course, Barcelona, Spain (13 to 17 June, 2016)
- Second course, Barcelona, Spain (8 to 12 June, 2015)
- First course, Tunis, Tunisia (16 to 20 June, 2014)
Contact
For further questions about the course please visit the general course information or email to: hfcourse@who.int.