Health experts and activists at a discussion in the city said community level participation is a must for achieving the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2032.
The local government bodies should ensure community level participation to reach healthcare facilities to the people of all strata, they said this on Saturday while speaking at a seminar titled ‘National Event of Knowledge Exchange, Capacity Building and Policy Dialogue’ at the LGED auditorium in the city.
Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), in cooperation with USAID’s Health Finance and Governance, is organizing the two-day event.
Former President of Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA) Dr Rashide-e-Mahbub, Country Manager of USAID’s Health Finance and Governance Dr Mursaleena, Senior Technical and Policy Advisor of USAID Dr Sukumar Sarker, President of Municipal Association of Bangladesh Al-Haj Md Abdul Baten and health experts, among others, took part in the discussion with PPRC Executive Chairman Hossain Zillur Rahman in the chair.
People’s representatives of different local government bodies, researchers and teachers and officials from different organizations were present at the event, among others.
Dr Rashide urged the representatives of local government bodies to create awareness among the people to ensure their participation in the efforts of the government and non-government actors to build a healthy Bangladesh.
Dr Sukumar said awareness should be created from both family and community levels to promote better life style, which eventually would help prevention of diseases.
Activities facilitating UHC in Bangladesh have gained a new momentum following the commitment of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the 64th World Health Assembly in May 2011 to achieve UHC by 2032. Some strategic initiatives undertaken since then include the formulation of the Health Care Financing Strategy 2012-2032, Communication Strategy for UHC 2014-2016 and Bangladesh National Health Accounts-2015.
Others speakers at the event said Bangladesh will require more than just increasing financial resources for health.
It will require improved ways of organizing resource mobilization, allocation and expenditure in order to obtain the maximum value for money to ensure equitable and sustainable financing and financial protection against the health expenditure for the entire population, they added.
