By Ndidichukwu Odoh
In championing the goal of helping Developing-8 countries attain Universal Health Coverage by 2030, the D-8 Health and Social Protection has commenced a partnership with Chatham House to accelerate progress made by the D-8 countries towards the attainment of Health related Sustainable Development Goals.
The partnership is focused on boosting technical corporation, visibility and Influence of the two organizations to help accelerate Developing-8 member countries health programs targeted at achieving Universal Health Coverage.
In an engagement meeting with Chatham House, D-8 HSP Head and Special Adviser, Dr. Ado Muhammad, commended Chatham House for being a great think tank in shaping policies around the world and contributions to global health and security.
Ado in his presentation, said the D-8 HSP, considers the valuable opportunity to work together in advancing global public health and security important as it aligns with the D-8 HSP pillars which are focused on helping governments and societies build a prosperous and just world where everyone have access to quality health and life.
“Taking in to consideration the outcome of the D-8 HSP consultation in June 2019, HSP want to be able to provide that platform for experiential learning so that weak countries can learn from the stronger ones taking into account efficient and effective practices in global health” said Ado
Ado also informed the Chatham House that the D-8 member countries are at different levels of coverage for Universal Health Coverage, He said, Turkey has reached 99%, Malaysia 80%, Bangladesh 50%, while Nigeria is behind with just 5% coverage, and thus the need to boost support for improvement.
According to Ado, the WHO reports suggests that the D-8 countries also vary in their GNI per capital and government expenditure per capital on health, in 2016, GNI ranges from USD 1122 in Bangladesh to USD 13913 and government expenditure USD 468.8 for Turkey to USD 34.2 for Bangladesh.
He also stated that the countries can begin to learn from the success stories of member countries as strategies being adopted differ. For instance Bangladesh has community clinics – Shastho Surokhsha Karmasuchi which is helping improve access to care, While Malaysia has adopted private financing, and Indonesia is using family approach. He also mentioned that Turkey made great progress with the adoption of Public financing and reforms.
“Obtaining the evidence to shape the right approach requires a robust performance monitoring and results/impact across the health and social protection sectors, this is the reason we are in partnership with Chatham house to be able to reach out faster to our overall goal” Ado added.
The partnership with Chatham house will go a long way in improving access to health care and progress in Universal Health Coverage agenda of the D-8 countries.
