More than 150 participants, including delegates from Ministries of Health from 25 countries, representatives from academia, international agencies, the donor community and WHO officials from the three levels of the Organization, convened in Geneva, Switzerland at the 6th Annual meeting of UHC- Partnership from 11-13 June 2019. , to discuss key achievements and challenges on the path towards UHC and health-related SDGs.
The overarching theme of the meeting was Primary Health Care (PHC) as a foundation and key driver for achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Amongst others, discussions focused on what are strategies to better reach ‘the unreached’ population in remote or crisis areas through a PHC focused approach and effective coordination.
Key themes emerged, discussions brought emphasis around specific details:
- the necessary link with communicable and non-communicable diseases;
- coordination mechanisms in countries among health and development partners in stable as well as emergency context;
- ensuring harmonization and alignment in countries through the refreshing of international health partnership (IHP+) principles;
- development of approaches to strengthen health systems and maintain continuity of services during emergency and conflict situations in countries.
The meeting was a great success, particularly the policy lab sessions, which enabled participants to understand what actions were taken by local governments to overcome challenges and bottlenecks faced by their health systems. This was highlighted through the presentation of real examples, this helped participants visualize the issues and proposed solutions by the country to help implement PHC.
The UHC-Partnership aims at strengthening country capacities for the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of national health strategies and reforms promoting Primary Health Care approach, seen as being a cost-effective, cost-efficient and equitable engine to drive the achievement of UHC. The UHC-Partnership paves the way in line with the WHO five-year strategy plan (the GPW13) and its principles, providing tailored bottom up and flexible support to country priorities for PHC.
The UHC-Partnership is funded by a coalition of donors including the European Union, France, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, and the United Kingdom.
Related links:
Stories from the Field: the latest from the Joint Working Team on UHC in Dominica
https://who.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=138fce4409c50b1a656694b53&id=565a2acef3&e=0ffcd2d37e
Stories from the Field: the latest from the Joint Working Team on UHC in Nigeria
https://who.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=138fce4409c50b1a656694b53&id=a5d34b8667&e=0ffcd2d37e