With the challenges caused by severe cuts to health aid, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on countries to adapt to a new era of reduced assistance and urged leaders to use domestic resources to ensure that people still have access to quality healthcare despite aid cuts.
To help countries adapt to this new normal, WHO recently issued guidance to address global health financing cuts, which are disrupting the delivery of healthcare services in many countries.
Called “Responding to the health financing emergency: immediate measures and longer-term shifts”, WHO listed several measures that countries must adhere to, to cope with sudden financing cuts and help them implement sufficient and sustainable financing for national health systems.
What does WHO suggest?
In a media release, WHO urges policymakers to make health a political and fiscal priority in government budgets even during times of crisis.
They said government health budgets should be considered as investments in social stability, human dignity and economic resilience.
WHO said countries need to prioritise the health services accessed by the poorest, protect health budgets and essential health services and improve efficiency through better procurement, reduced overheads and strategic purchasing.
Additionally, integrate externally-funded or disease-specific services into comprehensive PHC-based delivery models, and use health technology assessments to prioritise services and products that have the greatest health impact per dollar spent.
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How does this guidance help countries?
The guidance provided by WHO was built on its commitment to help countries strengthen and sustain robust health systems, ensuring that people, mostly the vulnerable ones, will still have access to a quality health system.
“Sudden and unplanned cuts to aid have hit many countries hard, costing lives and jeopardising hard-won health gains,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
“But in the crisis lies an opportunity for countries to transition away from aid dependency towards sustainable self-reliance, based on domestic resources.”
“WHO’s new guidance will help countries to better mobilise, allocate, prioritise and use funds to support the delivery of health services that protect the most vulnerable,” he added.
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