PAHO/WHO expert group meets at Harvard to advise on path toward universal health coverage in the Americas

Global health experts convened by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) with support from the Harvard Global Equity Initiative (HGEI) are in Cambridge this week to discuss strategies to support the Region of the Americas in achieving universal health coverage (UHC).

The Task Force on Universal Health Coverage in the Americas, chaired by HGEI Director Felicia Knaul, will advise PAHO/WHO on key lines of action and best practices for advancing universal health coverage in PAHO/WHO member countries of North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean.

The group's input will help PAHO/WHO develop a regional strategy that will be presented to ministers of health from throughout the hemisphere at the PAHO/WHO Directing Council meeting in September 2014. The strategy, if adopted by the Directing Council, will guide PAHO/WHO technical cooperation and country efforts to advance toward universal health coverage.

"Universal health coverage is a powerful concept and a powerful movement that has begun not just in Latin America and the Caribbean but globally as well," said PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne. "It is a process rather than a finite goal, but it is essential to advancing health as both a human right and a crucial component of development."

"Universal Health Coverage is the most effective and efficient means for delivering quality health care and ensuring access for all members of a society," said Task Force Chair and HGEI Director Felicia Knaul. "More than that, UHC is the means through which countries can transform health as a human right and equity imperative into an entitlement that individuals can exercise and for which health systems can be held accountable."

In the Americas, several countries have made significant progress toward universal health coverage, and others have taken important steps in that direction. PAHO has been providing policy guidance and technical cooperation to its member countries in conceptualizing universal health coverage and in related technical areas including health system strengthening, primary health care, and access to essential medicines and technologies.

The Task Force on Universal Health Coverage will support and expand this work by proposing new strategies and mechanisms for promoting universal coverage in the Americas; by identifying enabling factors, conditions, and best practices that facilitate the transformation of health systems toward UHC; and by proposing frameworks and priorities for knowledge gathering and dissemination as well as monitoring and evaluation of universal health coverage at the national and regional levels.

The Task Force will also contribute to the development of a regional research agenda, identifying priority areas for future study and data requirements, and will propose strategies for developing national UHC roadmaps, promoting country-to-country cooperation, and stimulating innovations in health systems moving toward universal coverage.

The Task Force is expected to conclude its work in October 2014.

In addition to Chairperson Felicia Knaul, the members of the Task Force on Universal Health Coverage are:

Rifat Atun, Professor and Director of the Global Health Systems Cluster, Harvard School of Public Health
Rafael Bengoa, Consejero de Sanidad y Consumo de la IX Legislatura del Gobierno Vasco
Pedro Brito, former Director of Health Systems and Services, PAHO/WHO
Daniel Cotlear, Lead Economist, the World Bank
David Evans, Director of the Department of Health Systems Financing, WHO
Tim Evans, Director of Health Nutrition and Population, Human Development Network, the World Bank
Luiz Augusto Facchini, Deputy Chief of the Department of Social Medicine at the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil
Paul Farmer, Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Jose Figueras Marimont, Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and Head of the WHO European Centre on Health Policy
Walter Flores, Director of the Center for Studies on Equity and Governance in Health Systems
Sheila Forrester, former Chief Medical Officer of Jamaica
Julio Frenk Mora, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health
Rebeca Grynspan, Under-Secretary-General, UNDP
Malaquias López Cervantes of the School of Medicine at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Stephen McGurk, Vice-President, International Development Research Center, Canada
Willem Van Lerberghe, Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Unviersidade Nova de Lisboa
Jeanette Vega, Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation

PAHO and WHO have defined universal health coverage as a top priority in their technical cooperation programs, and are promoting it as an overarching health-related objective for the post-2015 development agenda.

PAHO, founded in 1902, is the oldest international public health organization in the world. It works with its member countries to improve the health and the quality of life of the people of the Americas. It also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of WHO.

The Harvard Global Equity Initiative (HGEI) is a Harvard University research program devoted to promoting more equitable development with a particular focus on the dimension of health. The HGEI team offers substantial experience garnered in low- and middle-income countries undertaking research, participating in developing and evaluating policy and programs, and working for and with governmental and non-governmental organizations, particularly on the issues of health system strengthening, health financing, and expanding access to cancer care and control.

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PAHO/WHO expert group meets at Harvard to advise on path toward universal health coverage in the Americas

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