In April 2020, COVAX was launched to help ensure that “people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are available, regardless of their wealth.” With around 190 participating countries, the COVAX Facility is a global risk-sharing mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Through the […]

What’s one of the greatest public health investments but is often underfunded? Immunization. “[Immunization] programs are a victim of their own success. The expanded program for immunization started in the 1970s around the world…and today, in most parts of the world, a lot of diseases [such as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, measles, and tuberculosis] aren’t […]

This piece originally appeared on Health Systems Governance Collaborative here Written by Bernardo II Cielo (De La Salle University), Pura Angela Wee-Co (Strategic Purchasing for Primary Health Care, ThinkWell), Aliyah Evangelista (Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service, Department of Health Philippines), Maria Eufemia Yap (Strategic Purchasing for Primary Health Care, ThinkWell), and Matt Boxshall (Strategic […]

This piece originally appeared on P4H here Written by Ryan Rachmad Nugraha, Anooj Pattnaik, Catherine Connor, Hasbullah Thabrany The spread of Covid-19 around the world has provided a litmus test on the strength and resilience of every country’s health system. Indonesia has been no exception. As of November 6, 2020, there have been 421,731 positive […]

Written by Prastuti Soewondo, Halimah Mardani, and Nadhila Adani ThinkWell’s Indonesia team presented research findings from three studies at the Annual Scientific Forum of the Indonesian Public Health Association on November 24-26, 2020. The conference was conducted by the Indonesian Public Health Association, Ministry for National Development and Planning, UNFPA, and Faculty of Public Health […]

This piece originally appeared on P4H here Written by Hélène Barroy, Federica Margini, Joseph Kutzin (World Health Organization), Nirmala Ravishankar  (ThinkWell), Moritz Piatti-Fünfkirchen (World Bank Group), Srinivas Gurazada (PEFA), Chris James (OECD) COVID-19 has been a well-recognized stress test for public financial management (PFM) systems in most countries. It exposed the overall weaknesses of PFM systems across countries […]

This article originally appeared in Health Systems Governance Collaborative here Our current situation – living through the COVID-19 pandemic – highlights the critical role of local governments in securing the health of communities. Since the confirmation of the Philippines’ first COVID-19 case last January 30, 2020, the disease has heavily strained the health system of the country. The […]

This article originally appeared in Health Systems Governance Collaborative here Expanding technical capacity When Covid-19 hit the Philippines last January 2020, a lot of the science behind the disease response was still unknown. Testing was prioritized, and the Department of Health (DOH) grappled with increasing the number of capable testing laboratories and personnel, whilst balancing proper […]

This piece originally appeared on P4H here Written by: Anooj Pattnaik, Deputy Director for Learning; Prastuti Soewondo, Country Director, ThinkWell Indonesia; and Nadhila Adani, Analyst, ThinkWell Indonesia Purchasing of health services during normal times is rarely done by a single entity. Rather, there are usually many different purchasers in a country’s health system, from ministries of health, subnational governments to national […]