This case examine was printed on 8 December 2022 as a part of the WHO delivering outcomes and making an affect: tales from the bottom report, which presents a snapshot of how WHO has delivered on its mission in international locations and contributed to well being outcomes throughout a variety of points throughout 2020-2021.
The Lao Individuals’s Democratic Republic has an bold agenda for attaining Sustainable Improvement Aim 3 – it seeks to make sure wholesome lives and promote well-being throughout the life course, whereas present process financial, demographic and epidemiological
transitions. The nation is making ready to graduate from least developed nation standing by 2026, and with this it would expertise a decline in growth help within the coming years. Whereas the Lao Individuals’s Democratic Republic has labored laborious
to guard lives all through the coronavirus illness (COVID-19) pandemic, the financial affect of the pandemic has been vital. The nation’s gross home product is declining (it dropped from 4.7% in 2019 to −0.4% in 2020), debt
burden is rising and budgetary house for important expenditures is constrained. Towards this backdrop and the Authorities’s aim of attaining
common well being protection (UHC) by 2025, strengthening the resilience and sustainability
of the well being system is a precedence.
A mom together with her little one from a distant village in Xiangkhouang Province.
©WHO Nation Workplace within the Lao Individuals’s Democratic Republic/
Yoshi Shimizu
How did the Lao Individuals’s Democratic Republic, with the assist of the WHO Secretariat, obtain this?
Over the biennium, WHO supported the assessment and replace of the Well being Sector Reform Technique to information the nation (and companions’ assist) on its UHC journey over the following decade. Utilizing “backcasting”, one of many operational methods of working
from the WHO Western Pacific Area’s For the
future imaginative and prescient,1 WHO facilitated a strategy of figuring out future well being wants and strengthening programs approaches. This course of confirmed the necessity of strengthening the first well being care (PHC) system to future-proof the nationwide well being
system for assembly the wants of an ageing inhabitants carrying the next burden of noncommunicable illnesses (NCDs). With the Authorities’s dedication to strengthening PHC in alignment with the decentralization coverage (the Sam Sang directive), the
Well being Sector Reform Technique supplies strategic course for strengthening PHC as a core basis to succeed in hardto-reach populations. Furthermore, the Reform Technique goals to enhance the effectivity, resilience and sustainability of the well being system
within the context of donor transition and the pandemic within the nation’s journey to realize UHC. By way of multisectoral motion, the Reform Technique additionally goals to empower subnational governments to strengthen well being governance capability and develop
built-in well being companies with major care and important public well being capabilities.
Recognizing the important function that partnerships will play in facilitating implementation of the Reform Technique, WHO supported the Ministry of Well being to have interaction companions by a sectorwide coordination mechanism by cochairing the Well being Sector Working
Group and supporting the alignment of growth companions’ assist with the Authorities’s priorities. WHO, the Gavi Alliance, the World Fund, the United Nations Kids’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Financial institution and different companies which can be
signatories to the World Motion
Plan for Wholesome Lives and Nicely-being for All (SDG3 GAP), in addition to members of the GAP sustainable financing for well being (GAP SFH) accelerator working group, are offering coordinated assist to the nation within the space of well being financing.
WHO supported the Ministry of Well being in creating the Well being Financing Technique 2021–2025 for the transition from donor funding to home financing, which was adopted in October 2021 in shut coordination with key companions, such because the Swiss
Purple Cross and the World Financial institution. The Well being Financing Technique goals to extend sustainability, accountability, effectivity and fairness within the well being system, discover revolutionary options to deal with well being financing challenges and align growth help
extra carefully with the priorities of the Authorities. It supplies a framework for assist from signatory companies to SDG3 GAP and different companions. In keeping with the priorities recognized within the Well being Financing Technique, WHO labored with GAP SFH and different
companions to discover how effectivity positive factors might be achieved throughout programmes, particularly on the PHC stage, and the way companions’ numerous efforts to introduce revolutionary financing mechanisms would assist to deal with well being financing challenges in
the nation’s context. The brand new Well being and Vitamin Providers Entry Mission – collectively developed with the World Financial institution, the World Fund, the Division of International Affairs and Commerce (DFAT) and different members of the GAP SFH accelerator
working group – was an instance of joint partnership to strengthen PHC by an revolutionary financing mechanism. WHO collaborated with GAP SFH companions and others to assist the Ministry of Well being in making ready the nation for a clean transition
from exterior financing to home financing by enhancing funding in PHC in alignment with the Well being Sector Reform Technique and the Well being Financing Technique.
As well as, WHO offered technical assist for the implementation of the Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage (NHI) scheme, which was rolled out nationwide in 2016 except for Vientiane Capital. WHO performed a major function in facilitating the Nationwide
Well being Insurance coverage Bureau in coordinating assist from numerous companions for the NHI scheme. In 2019–2020, WHO performed an evaluation of the implementation of the NHI scheme, which recognized key achievements, challenges and future priorities
for bettering the effectivity, fairness and sustainability of the scheme. Additional, WHO and a number of companions – together with the Worldwide Labour Group, the Swiss Purple Cross and the World Financial institution – supported the Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage
Bureau in conducting a costing train of the important well being companies package deal and the NHI profit package deal to offer important knowledge for the sustainability reforms of the NHI scheme. In keeping with the strategic course of the Well being Financing Technique,
WHO supported the Ministry of Well being in updating the NHI Technique 2021–2025, which was endorsed in September 2022, in addition to is working to “attain the unreached” (a thematic precedence of the For the longer term imaginative and prescient). WHO assist
goals to reinforce governance and financing mechanisms and enhance implementation of the NHI scheme, particularly in guaranteeing monetary safety for susceptible populations.
References
- For the longer term: in direction of the healthiest and most secure area.
Geneva: World Well being Group; 2020 (accessed 9 July 2022).
