Clients at an HIV clinic in Vietnam are finally having their viral load tests reimbursed, thanks to some multisectoral problem-solving facilitated by LHSS. 

​​​For countries wanting to strengthen health budget execution, learning about promising approaches used by others is one thing but putting them into practice is another. This blog reveals how two countries, Lao PDR and Peru, adapted promising practices and began to implement them.

Vietnam is one of the 30 countries with the highest burden of TB and drug-resistant TB in the world, with more than 172,000 cases and 10,400 deaths from TB in Vietnam in 2020 (WHO).  On July 1, TB treatment facilities nationwide started providing TB drugs to patients through social health insurance, marking an important milestone for financial sustainability.

In response to an emergency request from the Government of Laos, the Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) is on the ground in Laos working with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to combat the spread of COVID-19.

What do Lao PDR, Malaysia, and Kenya have in common? All three countries have strengthened their budget structures and processes to enable good health budget execution. Their experiences hold valuable lessons for others striving to increase budget execution and unlock significant resources for health.

Poor budget execution results in inefficiencies that undermine the ability of health agencies to improve access to needed health services and improve population health. Yet billions of dollars in unexecuted health budgets are returned to treasuries every year. 

Effort to strengthen Vietnam’s social health insurance program will benefit people with HIV.

Ceremony marked the formal start of the LHSS Project’s four-year effort to help the Government of Vietnam implement its social health insurance program.

LHSS is supporting the capacity development of Vietnam’s National Tuberculosis Program to manage, quantify, procure, and distribute TB first-line drugs through a self-funded health finance system.