The Middle East and North Africa Health Policy Forum (MENA HPF) held a regional workshop on “Governance in Universal Health Coverage”. The workshop was held on January 21st – 22nd, 2015 at the Economic Research Forum (ERF), Cairo, Egypt. The workshop convene around 45 participants of researchers, experts, policy makers, private and public sector actors, civil society organizations, health practitioners, from the region.
This meeting was organized with awareness that progress towards universal health coverage in the region faces many challenges and at the same time can benefit from emerging opportunities to make in country health systems institutions accountable to promote and deliver equitable and effective health services. The urgency and opportunities for proficient interventions for effective governance in the region has never been more evident than they are today.
The workshop opened a dialogue on governance and governance assessments, discussed challenges and opportunities in strengthening governance of health systems in different countries in the region including the pharmaceutical sector.
Workshop Objectives:
The workshop addressed two main pillars: governance in terms of situation update and assessment; and governance of pharmaceutical sector. The workshop created a space for experience and knowledge sharing, identifying best practices and forging strategic directions. During the workshop, panel discussions presented challenges and opportunities as well as suggested ways forward for strengthening of governance for UHC.
The Key Objectives of this workshop included
- Discussing challenges and opportunities in strengthening governance of health systems in different countries in the region including the pharmaceutical sector;
- Examining as a model one country health system governance report;
- Discussing the need for health equity for accountability;
- Suggesting the way forward for governance strengthening for achievement of universal health coverage.
