Reimagining Primary Health Care: Opportunities and Innovations for Health System Strengthening Today and in the Future

Session Date: April 22, 2021

Session Description: There is an urgent need to strengthen Primary Heath Care (PHC) systems around the world. The Global Conference on Primary Health Care and its associated Astana Declaration (2018), the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All (2019), the COVID-19 pandemic, and commitments to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, have built the case for strong, comprehensive PHC (cPHC). We now have less than a decade to meet these commitments. However, how cPHC will be implemented and financed remains unclear. The WHO estimates an additional US$200–328 billion is required annually for cPHC between 2020-2030, and that this investment avert nearly 60 million deaths. Countries themselves need to increase spending on cPHC by at least 1% of their GDP, a challenge in many low and middle income settings. In this panel, critical PHC decision makers including the Ministries of Health in India, Indonesia, Kenya, and Ghana, the WHO Special Programme on PHC, and global health donors will discuss (i) the opportunities to, and importance of, cPHC to meet the global health needs of today and the future, and (ii) the innovations – for instance, in technology, self-care, client-centered care, and private sector engagement – and investments it will take to achieve the global vision of comprehensive primary health care.

Session File(s) Reimagining Primary Health Care: Opportunities and Innovations for Health System Strengthening Today and in the Future PPT.pdf