In Namibia, The Ministry of Health and Social Services conducted a comprehensive training session, with LHSS support, aimed at enhancing the capacity of its senior staff members. The focus of the training was social contracting, with particular emphasis on need identification and the intricate processes involved in contracting civil society organizations through social contracting mechanisms.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia, with support from the LHSS Project, convened stakeholders in Windhoek to validate the costing of the Essential Health Services Package.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services gathered stakeholders at Midgard Country Estate to consult on standard operating procedures for social contracting. The goal:  reach consensus on implementation plans and outline the path ahead, encompassing regional dissemination, pilot planning, and early implementation phases scheduled for later in the year.

Explore how the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia, with support from the LHSS Project, is transforming health care access through the revised Essential Health Services Package.

The launch of the combined Health Accounts and National AIDS Spending Assessment exercise conducted by the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia aims to improve the collective understanding of both health and HIV spending in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Social Services, with the support of the USAID-funded Local Health System Sustainability project, facilitated an extensive training on the combined System of Health Accounts/National AIDS Spending Assessment resource tracking approach which aims to generate detailed estimates of both health and HIV spending.

LHSS supports the Ministry of Health and Social Services in Namibia for the development of the country's groundbreaking UHC policy and Essential Health Services Package.  

Returning funds to the Ministry of Finance at the end of the fiscal year is the last thing any Ministry of Health wants to do. In Peru, health budget officials are rolling out a strategy to stop that from happening.

​​​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.

Late last year, health sector practitioners from eight countries met to tackle the issue head-on as participants in the Joint Learning Network Health Budget Execution Learning Exchange. They made meaningful progress.

Officials from the health and education sectors of Arequipa, Madre de Dios, Moquegua, Puno and Tacna regions of Peru begin discussions for implementing a regional COVID-19 communications strategy.

For countries facing a large influx of migrants, the best way to ensure that these new members of society have sustained access to essential health services is to have a long-term strategy – one that builds on existing health platforms.

In the Dominican Republic, the dual impact of large numbers of migrants and a health system overwhelmed by COVID-19 has meant that fewer health services are available for migrant women. LHSS is working to improve health protection for the country’s migrant women, most of whom come from Haiti.

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. 

Population movement of this magnitude places huge stress on health systems in receptor countries. How can health care for migrants be financed? How can health system capacity be expanded? And how can health sector policies and national migration policies be harmonized?