Second Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage for Low- and Middle-Income Countries
8-12 June 2015, Barcelona, Spain
Overview
The second WHO Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage for Low- and Middle-Income Countries took place in Barcelona, Spain from 8 to 12 June 2015. A total of 54 participants from 31 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 the goals 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.
© Copyright Robert Ramos
Participants by country of residence [jpg 115kb]
Participants by organization type [jpg 87kb]
This course was helpful for me to reform the health financing system in my country. After this course I will prepare some strategic plans to achieve UHC in my country and try to find any options on revenue collection and purchasing. I will also talk with many decision makers in my country to see different schemes for more efficient and effective UHC.
This was a very useful course for civil societies, too. CSOs tend to be associated as just noise makers, but we also need to be sophisticated. We need this kind of capacity building to be able to engage us to a higher level, such as policy makers, government officials and other stakeholders in health delivery systems...etc. This course definitely empowered us [to advocate UHC].
Participants on the course were selected to ensure that a diverse set of stakeholders were represented, including senior policy makers from Ministries of Health, Ministries of Finance, and government health insurance organisations, as well as bilateral and multilateral development organisations, and civil society. During the course, participants were presented with a framework with which to analyse and reflect on their own health systems performance, analyse the problems it faces, and discuss ideas with professionals from a wide range of countries.
The course was designed and delivered by the Health Financing Policy team, part of the Department of Health Systems Governance and Financing, WHO Geneva. Invited Keynote Speakers: Dr Chris Atim, Executive Director of the African Health Economics Association; Dr Melitta Jakab, Senior Health Financing Policy Analyst, WHO Regional Office for Europe and Mr Rob Yates, Senior Fellow, Chatham House, UK., each gave their perspective on the challenge of extending coverage to those people not working in formal employment, an issue faced by most low and middle income countries.
The course offered a comprehensive framework to think through the main health financing policy issues, including raising revenues for health services, pooling those revenues, and then purchasing a defined set of services from health facilities, all with a focus on steering health systems towards universal health coverage. Sessions were highly interactive, with participants also working in teams on a group work task which involved analysing the current Indonesian health system; the challenge for each team was to come up with a proposal for health financing policy reforms to move the Indonesian health system towards UHC given the starting point which includes existing schemes for salaried workers, and in the context of high levels of informality.
The course will be held annually.
Advanced Course on Health Financing for Universal Coverage for Low- and Middle-Income Countries
![Participants by country of residence [jpg 115kb]](https://www.who.int/health_financing/hfcourse2015_chart_country_of_residence.jpg?ua=1){kind=link}
![Participants by organization type [jpg 87kb]](https://www.who.int/health_financing/hfcourse2015_chart_organisation.jpg?ua=1){kind=link}
Previous courses:
Contact
For further questions about the course please visit the general course information or email: hfcourse@who.int.