Findings from the Field
What We're Reading: Week of March 4
- More health-related data is available than ever before, yet poor data quality, lack of coordination across collection initiatives and infrequent reporting are restricting its effective use. We need better tools to help governments effectively use data for decision-making and improve health systems.
- The Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) lays out ten ways that the UN HLM on UHC can be transformative, including: 1) Discuss national roadmaps from governments which include specific, measureable steps to build UHC by 2030; 2) Hold governments to eliminating out-of-pocket payments; 3) Ask multilateral and bilateral donors to make specific commitments to support UHC; 4) Challenge civil society to drive support for UHC.
- Mali’s “astounding” community health worker program is a model for countries around the world. This week, the government announced that it will offer free primary health care to all pregnant women and children under five around the country – a major change from previous approaches requiring people to pay out-of-pocket for health services.
- This week, global health leaders from more than 35 countries committed to roll out new health technologies in national health systems to improve the health and wellbeing of their citizens. The newly signed Delhi Declaration outlines the importance of health technologies to achieve the health-related Sustainable Development Goals.
- Global Health 50/50 will be releasing its next report – Equality Works – on March 7. The report will provide a look into the gender-related policies of global health organizations.
- Spain is the world’s healthiest nation – due in large part to its strong primary health care system – according to Bloomberg’s new Global Health Index.
- A new BMJ study carried out in high-income countries found that comprehensive primary health care was better suited to empower communities and provide holistic care than selective primary health care.
- A new report finds that better transparency in global health supply chains will improve access to medicines in low-and-middle income countries, but the way forward is not easy: it requires major system overhauls and strong political commitments.