Findings from the Field
What We're Reading: Week of March 25
- Timed to the launch of the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis (TB), former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commented that the best way for countries to protect people from TB is to achieve universal health coverage (UHC).
- A new policy report on integrating the HIV response into UHC finds that 1) Domestic funding for UHC often doesn’t cover HIV services for all, 2) Bad laws and policies leave the people who are at greatest risk for HIV behind as countries progress toward UHC, 3) Civil society engagement and participation is needed now more than ever.
- A group of senior healthcare leaders and the World Economic Forum are launching a new initiative – the Global Coalition for Value in Healthcare – to address the rising costs of healthcare and provide a platform where stakeholders can exchange best practices.
- “2019 marks the tenth anniversary of China’s health care reform that set rebuilding the primary health care system as one of the [country’s] priorities.” Despite progress, China is still working to improve the tiering of its health care system – ensuring that patients are first treated at the primary or community health level, and referred to expensive hospitals only when needed.
- A new report by the World Health Organization and Women in Global Health provides a gender and equity analysis of the global health workforce, calling for gender-transformative policies to achieve UHC.
- “We do not have an effective model for dealing with outbreaks in unstable regions,” writes Jeremy Farrar in The Telegraph. “Conflict is a major risk factor for infectious diseases, while violence and displacement only heighten the need to earn people’s trust in order for any epidemic response to succeed.”
- The Global Financing Facility (GFF) launched its selection process for the next set of countries to receive support for improving the health of women, children and adolescents – including through building stronger health systems.