Members of the Joint Learning Network (JLN) shared their expertise on mobilizing domestic resources and health financing at a special event on the sidelines of the G7 Health Ministers’ Meeting in Nagasaki, Japan from May 15–17, 2023. Fifteen practitioners from the Network’s Domestic Resource Mobilization Collaborative met to discuss how the group’s knowledge products can best be used and to identify future opportunities for working together.
“I was excited to join this seminar to be able to learn from other countries in our region as we share experiences and see what changes to make in our journey towards UHC,” said Viengxay Viravong, Deputy Director General of the National Health Insurance Bureau, Ministry of Health, Lao PDR. “We are looking to increase public financial support for health. After COVID-19, Lao suffered economic shocks. Mobilizing resources within and outside the country is a priority for our country. So, the meetings, especially on Domestic Resource Mobilization, were timely and helpful.”
In Nagasaki, JLN practitioners also participated in the World Bank’s Health Systems Flagship Program, a global course on strengthening health systems. The JLN team ran key sessions of the flagship course, sharing their experience with participants from 20 countries, and introduced the newly formed Reimagining Primary Health Care collaborative and the JLN Health Benefits Package Revision Guide, a new publication designed to help countries review and improve service coverage.
Sambo Pheakday, Vice Secretary General, General Secretariat of the National Social Protection Council, Cambodia, also commented: “The participants had very good experience and knowledge of the real issues and countries could learn from each other. I found that the JLN [knowledge] product about making the case for domestic resource mobilization, has important and realistic messages that Ministry of Health officials can use in convincing their Ministry of Finance counterparts.”
The event was supported by the Government of Japan’s Policy and Human Resources Development Fund and JLN initiatives are co-supported by the Advance UHC, the Australian Government and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.