Implementing health financing reform
Progress towards universal health coverage requires a concerted effort to strengthen the health system, and health financing reforms are a critical part of that process. WHO plays a leading role in generating and disseminating evidence and guidance in support of the development and implementation of health financing policies by countries and other stakeholders based on the most up-to-date global evidence.
Health financing reforms cannot simply be imported from one country to another given the unique context of each country and its starting point in terms of health financing arrangements; the underlying causes of performance problems differ in each country and it is these causes which the reforms proposed in a health financing strategy must address. However, there are lessons from international experience that allow certain guiding principles for reforms which support progress towards UHC.
WHO’s health financing team works with countries to design and implement health financing policies which respond to specific country needs and priorities and is also based on global evidence and lessons learnt. WHO provides specialized technical assistance to countries based on these guiding principles while taking a practical approach. As Dr. Tedros put it, “UHC is possible at all levels of economy, in any country”.
WHO’s health financing team supports health ministries in their engagement with finance authorities, working together with countries to build better budgeting processes and ensure public financial management reforms are aligned with the health financing system. WHO provides knowledge synthesis, brokerage, cross-country learning and capacity-building on health financing for UHC. It supports data collection and analysis to track health expenditures as an input to the Global Health Expenditure Database