EVENTS

Digital Roundtable 3 - September 14th

PARLIAMENTARY DIALOGUE ON FUTURE HEALTH SYSTEMS - Unlocking Private Enterprise Shaping New Partnerships

By Invitation Roundtable Meeting on –Political perspectives on informed evidence in shaping new health partnerships. This Roundtable will be co-organized by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Health and the Global Parliamentary Alliance for Health Rights and Development. Parliamentarians will respond to 2 specific pre-shared questions and on the role of evidence and research in new partnerships in healthcare and their thoughts on engaging in a platform that helps drive this.

I. Background

The rapid response to Covid-19 has demonstrated new approaches for mobilising public and private sectors. The emergency phase experienced across the world has showed that big changes are possible in the face of a crisis. Indeed, the public and private sectors have demonstrated new ways of working together to augment capacity gaps for the public good.

As governments and the private sector are creating new ways to collaborate to protect and improve population health, rapid learning about “what works and how” could help to optimize these engagements.The health systems research community can make a big contribution to this kind of learning and to the evolution and redesign of healthcare systems and with more effective participation of the private sector where discussions have been more ideological rather than scientific and systematic.

This parliamentary dialogue appreciates that stronger and integrated mechanisms are necessary to deliver health services. The premise is that research evidence and application of lessons learned during Covid-19 can play a major role in supporting the evolution and articulation of future healthcare systems to achieve UHC. This dialogue enables parliamentarians to engage with health system researchers and discuss partnerships that can accelerate progress towards UHC

VII. Expected results

Engagement and Consensus built on the establishment of strengthened partnerships between Parliamentarians and Health System Researchers

Recommendations made on the parliamentarians role in addressing legislative, regulatory, policy, oversight and accountability mechanism gaps to support mutually beneficial collaboration between private public partnerships for the delivery of UHC.

Questions for parliamentarians

• What are the possible benefits and risks for government in working more closely with the private health sector?
• What measures can governments take to ensure that the private health sector really contributes to the achievement of universal health coverage and particularly in the delivery of SRHR and Gender Equality? What type of private sector enagement works better?
• What kind of evidence about the performance of the private sector do parliamentarians need to strengthen their capacity to monitor progress towards universal health coverage?

Questions for senior government officials

• What are the major risks in involving the private sector in government strategies for improving access to health services at scale?
• What measures can governments and the private sector take to diminish these risks?
• What measures can governments take to generate learning about what works well and what problems arise in deepening engagement with the private health sector?