27
Jan

Over the past few decades, various reforms have been implemented by governments for expanding health coverage, especially to reach the poorest and informal sectors of their populations. These reforms are ambitious in their goals but many times challenging to implement successfully. Often countries are facing similar challenges and are trying to find solutions individually. Learning from each other offers valuable opportunities for knowledge sharing. Policy makers and practitioners in these countries have shown keen interest to learn from peers in other countries as it may help to find solutions faster and also bring innovations. Many international and national organizations and initiatives currently and working to support these countries in their UHC reforms. However, still there is a lot to be done and more progress can be made through cross-country learning and exchange.

ADB has launched creation of a peer to peer Network on UHC called UHC Practitioners and Experts knowledge Exchange and Resources (UHC PEERS). The aim of this initiative is to create “A network of practitioners and policymakers from developing member countries (DMCs) and developed countries in Asia and the Pacific who exchange knowledge with each other as peers and co-develop knowledge products that help them to achieve and sustain UHC”.

This session will bring together countries from the Asia-Pacific region to share and learn from each other on specific topics. Three important topics have been identified for this sharing and learning. Life cycle-based primary health care is getting more important, but many countries are still not much aware of this concept, so this will be discussed. Strengthening human resources for health is another important topic to ensure that doctor, nurses and other staff are available to provide quality services. Techn ology is becoming backbone to deliver healthcare and countries can learn from each other about good practices.

At the completion of the session 

• Participants will be able to understand and appreciate the concept of peer-to-peer learning through UHC PEERS and identify ways in which they can get involved with this initiative.
• Participants will be able to identify the good practices from countries that are of interest to them and relevant to their contexts
• Improved knowledge of representatives from countries on selected two topics of technology for UHC and life course-based primary health care based on the sharing of experiences of select countries
• Identify the key importance of equity in the health workforce to deliver adequate services during demographic transition
• Development of a plan to learn about these topics from selected countries and what type of facilitation will be required