Financing new global health goal

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is urging countries to move towards universal health coverage and to scale up international investment in catalytic development funding. The call comes as world leaders travel to the 3rd UN Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa to discuss ways to pay for the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to be launched in New York in September 2015.

"The best way to assure meaningful progress towards the new global health goal is for countries to move closer to universal health coverage," says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.

Progress towards the MDGs

By the end of this year, if current trends continue, the world will meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets for turning around the epidemics of HIV, malaria and tuberculosis and increasing access to safe drinking water. It will also have made substantial progress in reducing child under-nutrition, maternal and child deaths, and increasing access to basic sanitation.

But wide gaps remain between and within countries. Much still needs to be done - particularly in the poorest countries and countries affected by conflict. And new health challenges have emerged, as highlighted by the Ebola crisis in West Africa and the rise of noncommunicable diseases. Within this context, countries have agreed a new global health goal with a strong focus on equity - to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Moving towards universal health coverage

Universal health coverage, a major focus of WHO's work for the past 5 years, aims to redress those imbalances. As a first step, the Organisation recommends reducing the need for people to pay directly for services at the point of delivery – out of their own pockets. In countries that depend heavily on out-of-pocket payments, health bills push 100 million people into poverty each year.

Public funding is key to reducing out of pocket expenditure. As public spending on health goes up, dependence on out-of-pocket payments declines. Between 1995 to 2013, government spending on health increased from 3.4 to 4.1% of GDP - on average across 190 countries. The increase in low-income countries has been greater, from 1.7 to 2.6% of GDP.

Despite this improvement, there is a long way to go. The challenge for countries is twofold: to mobilise more domestic public resources for health, and to ensure health systems use resources more efficiently.

At the Addis Ababa conference, WHO will urge the international community to strengthen cooperation with low- and lower-middle income countries to combine domestic and external funding so they provide sufficient resources to build robust health systems.

The Organisation will also emphasise the importance of getting better results from the money spent by putting in place innovative service delivery arrangements, lowering prices of key inputs (e.g. medicines) procured internationally, and reducing fragmentation in aid flows to countries.

"If the world is serious about the health-related SDG targets, it needs to make serious investments – both at domestic and international levels," adds Dr Chan.

source: http://www.thedailystar.net/