ANNOUNCEMENT
Universal Health
Coverage (UHC) means ‘every person, everywhere, has access to quality health care without
suffering financial hardship.’ UHC has the potential to
reduce the income-erosion effect of illness (high out-of-pocket expenditure, ‘catastrophic
health expenditure’ ) and the risk of impoverishment for millions of people
living in low and middle-income countries including Bangladesh. In recent
times, Bangladesh has done remarkably well to improve the overall population
health outcomes, which has been recognized globally. However, there is no scope
for complacence as there still remain problems of taking health services to the
door steps of people in the hard-to-reach areas, inclusion of vulnerable
(women, children and ultra-poor) and hitherto left-out groups such as the LGBT
population; adolescents, elderly and migrant population; and health system strengthening
to ensure equity, quality and responsiveness.
UHC as a concept and
a strategy for designing future health sector program is gaining momentum in
Bangladesh, especially in the context of Sustainable Development Goals adopted
by the global community in 2015. It can safely be said that Bangladesh has
taken the first steps towards advancing the UHC agenda beyond 2015. Some key
initiatives such as Health Care Financing Strategy 2012-2032, National Social
Security Strategy 2015, and
Communication Strategy for UHC 2014-2016 are testimony towards this commitment.
The non-government
organizations (NGO), civil society organizations (CSO), and development
partners have played an important role in initiating the discussion on UHC in
Bangladesh since 2011-‘12. Experiences gained so far show that
different stakeholders have different understanding of UHC including its meaning
and scope, dimensions and priority setting processes. For mobilizing and consolidating
stakeholder efforts in both the public and private sectors for UHC in
Bangladesh, it is essential to come to a common understanding and broad consensus
on the core
concepts of UHC including its breadth (population and services to embrace) and
depth (means and extent of financial protection).
Thus the general
objective of the “Building awareness for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in
Bangladesh: pushing the agenda forward in 2016”programme
is to
build awareness on the core concepts of UHC including its scope and contents
among different levels of stakeholders in the health, nutrition and population
sector. The activities are expected to develop a ‘critical mass’ at the policy
and practitioner level in the public and non-state sectors who can take an
active role in making UHC a priority in GoB’s health policies and programs. The programme is funded by HFG Project of USAID and implemented
by the James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University in partnership
with the Health Economics Unit (HEU) of MOHFW and will leverage HEU’s already
planned UHC communication strategy. To avoid duplication and build ownership
and buy-in, this activity will also coordinate with other stakeholders such as WHO,
GIZ, and the World Bank.
i)
half-day
orientation sessions for the senior government officials, executives from
professional bodies in the health and allied sectors, and members of the
parliamentary standing committee on health
ii)
one
day sessions for the mid-level government officials, academicians and
researchers
iii)
short
courses (3 to 5 days) for members from
professional bodies in the health and allied sectors, faculty of Community
Medicine/Public Health from public and private medical colleges/Universities, and
field level programme implementers in the GO and NGO sectors
Topics to be covered
would include core concepts of UHC including its scope, necessity and
preparedness for Bangladesh, role of organizations and individuals (half-day
sessions); health care financing, provider-payment mechanisms, benefit package,
quality of care (additional for one-day sessions); and more in-depth treatment
of these issues plus health system building blocks, World Bank’s UHC flagship course
framework, quality, equity and health system responsiveness using examples from
other country case studies in case of short courses. Contents will be developed
with the help of relevant experts and customized to the need of different
target audiences. A pool of facilitators from within JPGSPH/BRAC University and
outside will be mobilized to conduct different sessions.
Additional
awareness-building and advocacy activities would include policy dialogues, TV
Talk shows/debates, popular theatres, road shows etc. Various print and
audio-visual communication materials will be developed for advocacy during the
programme period. The project will be implemented in two phases and the Phase I
will cover the period April – October 2016. A detailed plan will be used to
evaluate the effectiveness of the first phase. Phase II (November 2016 –
October 2017) will build on the experiences gained from the first phase.
The programme will be
formally launched with a session for the senior government officials during the
second half of August in the presence of the Secretary for the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare, Government of Bangladesh.
For further
information, pl contact:
Prof. Syed Masud
Ahmed,
Director, Centre of
Excellence for Universal Health coverage, JPGSPH, BRAC University
e-mail: ahmed.sm@bracu.ac.bd; Tel:
880-2-9827501-4, Ext. 6020
1 comment:
Assalamu alaikum warahmatullah,
Thanks for such a enrich blog. I found it useful.
Best regards
Dr Shahnur Begum
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