Schedule: 18 November 2020, 13:00-15:00 CET

Background

The multi-donor coordination committee (MDCC) is one of the information sharing and accountability mechanism that WHO put in place in the frame of the UHC-Partnership (UHC-P). The UHC-P was established in 2011 to help countries build resilient, effective and sustainable health systems to achieve UHC related goals. It aims to bridge the gap between global commitments on UHC and country implementation, serving as a country-level resource for UHC2030, the global movement to build stronger health systems for UHC.

In line with the methodology developed by the UHC-Partnership as well as with the new Thirteenth WHO General Programme of Work 2019-2023, and in order to strengthen the WHO bottom-up 3-levels support to countries, the Joint Working Team (JWT) has been established in May 2018.

The UHC-Partnership supported by the JWT is channeling a significant amount of resources to countries to help both the Ministries of Health and the WHO country offices. The support provided to 115 countries – covering the six WHO Regions – consists of about 93 long term technical assistants deployed in countries. In addition, catalytic funds are provided to undertake a wide range of activities focused on health system strengthening, non-communicable diseases and health security, particularly regarding the preparedness and risk management activities.

The support provided is based on bottom-up generated needs identified at country level, flexibility in implementation, result based approach and harmonious operations between the three levels of the Organization. This support comes in complementary to the SDG-GAP, the intensified support to primary health care, and some other initiatives that need to be taken into consideration if we want to ensure an integrated, comprehensive and consistent backing to the Ministries of Health.

Support is also provided to WHO Regional Offices, including about 21 international or locally recruited positions and funding for (sub-)regional activities.

Both 2019 and 2020 have been key for the UHC-Partnership as it is the time of a major geographical extension of its activities (from 77 to 115 countries) and an extended range of domains covered, including health system strengthening, non-communicable diseases, health security, emergencies and promotion of activities that overall lead to healthier populations.

The world is currently facing an unprecedented crisis due to COVID-19. It implies the necessity to reallocate the existing resources wherever possible to help organize the preparedness and response to immediate COVID-19 related needs. In addition, donors have released additional resources to support activities at country level, and to address the issue of capacity for the Member States to be able to respond appropriately to health-related stresses now and in the future.

The proposed overall objectives of the MDCC are:

• to promote a ‘one’ WHO integrated UHC approach and
• to improve the coordination between WHO and donors, by providing a platform to regularly convene, streamline programmes, as well as harmonize and align approaches in order to bundle synergies and avoid duplication of work

The above objectives remain particularly valid given the prevailing COVID-19 context.

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