Health Data

The Health Data Collaborative, launched by WHO and partner development agencies, countries, donors and academics, will strengthen countries' capacity to collect, analyse and use reliable health data, thereby reducing administrative burden. A list of 100 core health indicators has been produced, and 60 low income and lower-middle income countries, and their supporting donors, will be using common investment plans to strengthen their health information systems by 2024.

Why is it important for countries to track and understand primary health care spending? Read on as Federica Secci, Health Specialist at the World Bank Group, discusses how accurate primary health care spending data is critical to improving systems and meeting Universal Health Coverage goals. 

How can strong supply chains strengthen primary health care systems? Read on for an exclusive PHCPI exploration of why essential drug availability is an essential component of effective primary care systems. 

Since 2009 the Community of Practice Health Service Delivery under Harmonization for Health in Africa (HHA) has grown to more than 1,400 members from 78 countries. Over the past seven years, the community focused on building a network of district health management teams that values and prioritizes information sharing and learning through a horizontal learning environment. A recent test of fast learning cycles in Guinea and Benin revealed the role of the community in enabling peer-to-peer communication and information exhange among disparate groups. Read on for deeper insights from the Community of Practice Health Service Delivery into lessons learned on starting a scaling a successful global network. 

The PHCPI partnership recently published an article in the Journal of General Internal Medicine underscoring why primary health care is essential to building strong health systems. The article gives insights into the core quality functions of primary health care, and provides a framework for understanding primary health care system performance.

As the 70th World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting comes to a close, it is important to recognize that dialogue among country actors and the global community is critical for collective progress. In this open letter to WHA delegates, members of the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage Primary Health Care Measurement for Improvement Collaborative share key insights on the need to better measure and strengthen primary health care systems.