Two major domains of activity this year with the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) partnership in Cape Verde are health financing, and health partnership and societal dialogue. A national compact to that effect was signed in February 2014.
Dr. Cristina Fontes Lima, the Minister of Health, stated in an interview with the International Health Partnership: “We signed the national compact in February after a year-long process during which we went through meetings in the different islands (we are a country of islands). It was very stimulating because we were able to get together associations, the private sector, pharmaceutical enterprises and institutions like churches, and municipalities… Not only did we sign the compact trying to consolidate and make our partnerships on health financing more effective, but also internally we built a coalition for bettering the prevention of disease and the promotion of health.” A short video of Cristina Fontes Lima discussing about the process can be found here.
The WHO offices in the country and headquarters provided a strong support in the national compact development process with stakeholders, led by the Ministry of Health. In March 2013. Dr Mohamed L. Dramé and Dr Mawuli Adzodo went to Cape Verde to introduce the compact concept, met and trained the major stakeholders, and helped to elaborate the roadmap for the compact development (“roteiro do pacto”). WHO support continued with the compact document development itself and during the National Health Forum in February 2014.
The health financing partnerships began to gain strength last year, when a national assessment on health financing strategies was realized with ILO and WHO technical assistance. In April 2014, Dr. Inke Mathauer from the WHO went to Cape Verde for a technical support mission. During her mission, a road map on health financing reforms was elaborated (see the presentation in French here); a workshop training for the commission on health financing was held; and a meeting was facilitated on health financing policy options with the participation of the Minister of Health, the Minister of Finance and a WHO Representative. Furthermore, a national multi-sectorial commission has been set, with the purpose to follow up on the definition and implementation of the health financing strategy and universal coverage reforms.