Despite substantial progress made in communicable disease control, public health challenges remain in many countries in the Western Pacific while donor funding is being reduced as countries move from low-income to middle-income status. As such, strengthening domestic financing in countries is critical to sustain the progress and reduce the disease burden of epidemics caused by communicable diseases.
"Strengthening domestic financing mechanisms is not only about getting more money. It is also about finding ways to improve how things are done," said Dr Shin Young-soo, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific. "A strong health system incorporates financing, governance, and service delivery to ensure the quality and affordability of health services delivered."
The WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific is working with countries to identify and implement actions to address the challenges of sustaining priority public health programmes, such as tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. This is done by increasing domestic financing for health, strengthening health system institutions, and improving efficiency to advance universal health coverage.
A side event with the theme Strengthening Domestic Financing of Priority Public Health Programmes was held during the sixty-seventh session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific. Delegates shared experiences and lessons learnt in transitioning to domestic financing mechanisms from vertically funded priority public health programmes such as TB and HIV.
A regional approach in addressing health financing, governance, and service delivery aspects of essential functions of the public health programmes was also presented.
Health financing policy focuses on how to move closer to universal coverage with issues related to: (i) how and from where to raise sufficient funds for health; (ii) how to overcome financial barriers that exclude many poor from accessing health services; or (iii) how to provide an equitable and efficient mix of health services.
"We will continue to provide technical support across programmes and to the health planning process in countries, facilitate intersectoral policy dialogue and build capacity of domestic financing institutions to sustain priority public health programmes to move towards universal health coverage," said Dr Shin.