Saturday, January 13, 2018

Abt and Save the Children event on Governance and Accountability for Strong Community Health Systems event


As we recognize the importance of community health systems in expanding access to care, especially to underserved populations, governance has become a key consideration towards realizing Universal Health Coverage. 

Abt Associates, Save the Children US, and UNICEF organized a panel discussion on the latest initiatives to improve governance for community health.

Some time stamps on this event



@10:15 – start - Bob Fryatt (Abt) intro, referencing the “institutionalizing community health conference” which took place in J’burg a year ago.

@12:50-30:45 Tim Evans (World Bank) – important comments on the need for decentralized self-organization [my words] in health systems, particularly community health systems management, the plurality of perspectives and visions and negotiations, and unintended factors affecting centralized planning to achieve universal health coverage, and the necessity of autonomy of local service delivery units.  Q&A after that.

@49:15 introduction of first panel – UNICEF (kindly acknowledging “whichever organization was involved in organizing this event"), Global Financing Facility, and USAID private sector innovations in HIV/AIDS care and treatment. I was particularly interested in the overview of the GFF and USAID’s Joe Tayag’s (@1:12) examples and discussion of needs-based approaches to specific key populations and their aspirations.

@1:41 Second panel with Carolyn Gomes (Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Association), Lisa Tarantino (Abt) and your servant (Save the Children). @1:42 - Carolyn made a powerful case for the role of community based organizations in HIV/AIDS and how the bottom up can lead to change upstream. @1:54 - Lisa provided 3 interesting examples in community health and health governance and health financing.  And if you want to see me in full effort, go to @2:05 and hear all about ‘Beyond the Building Blocks’.