IPS, SLMA and CPIGH jointly organize forum on ‘Universal Health Coverage’

The Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka (IPS) in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) and the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health of the Duke University, USA, has organised a Virtual Policy Dialogue on ‘Planning for Universal Health Coverage Amidst the 4Ds of Health Transitions’. 

It will be held on August 25 from 5.30-7.00 p.m. via Zoom. The forum will provide a platform for stakeholders to build consensus on how Sri Lanka can better plan to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) while navigating several local and global health transitions in its pathway.

There are four major, inter-linked transitions in diseases, demography, development assistance for health and domestic health financing – the ‘4Ds’ of global health transition – that complicate the country’s efforts to achieve UHC. The associated challenges of these have been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pace of these transitions is much faster than the adjustments being made in the health system and current UHC approaches. As a result, thepositive narrative that has accompanied Sri Lanka’s health system performance over several decades may become increasingly unsustainable in the years ahead unless robust reforms are implemented to address the persisting challenges.

This forthcoming Policy Dialogue is part of an ongoing IPS study which aims to understand how government, donors and key country stakeholders in the health sector perceive these transition challenges and their impact on the progress towards UHC, where they see the biggest gaps emerging, and what actions can help to address these challenges 
and gaps.