Showing papers by "Agnes Soucat published in 2020"
TL;DR: The group recommended that effective coverage be defined as the proportion of a population in need of a service that resulted in a positive health outcome from the service, which could improve monitoring efforts towards the achievement of universal health coverage.
63 citations
TL;DR: The sizeable costs of a COVID-19 response in the health sector will escalate, particularly if transmission increases, and early and comprehensive measures to limit the further spread of the virus will conserve resources and sustain the response.
52 citations
TL;DR: Very little evidence is found to justify the pursuit of labor-tax financing for health care in low- and low-middle-income countries and persistent evidence that such policies could lead to increased inequality and fragmentation of the health system is found.
Abstract: An increasing interest in initiating and expanding social health insurance through labor taxes in low- and low-middle-income countries goes against available empirical evidence. This article builds...
38 citations
TL;DR: The role of ministries of health has changed, progressively shifting from direct provision of health services to overall stewardship of the health sector, including financing and oversight of private providers.
Abstract: ### Summary box
Over the past decades, health systems have experienced major transformation. The role of ministries of health has changed, progressively shifting from direct provision of health services to overall stewardship of the health sector, including financing and oversight of private providers.1 Health reforms have triggered that shift, fostering new institutions, such as national medicines agencies, public health agencies, disease control agencies (eg, National Cancer Agencies) or health financing organisations responsible for risk and fund pooling, purchasing of health services, or targeting the poor or vulnerable groups. Shocks such as political or financial crises, natural disasters or epidemics have also affected the governing of the health system …
23 citations
TL;DR: A multidimensional framework of capacities for governance by Ministries of Health is proposed that encompasses both the "hard" and "soft" dimensions of governance, and reflects the diversification of their mandates in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Abstract: The lack of capacity for governance of Ministries of Health (MoHs) is frequently advanced as an explanation for health systems failures in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). But do we understand what governance capacities MoHs should have? Existing frameworks have not fully captured the dynamic and contextually determined role of MoHs, and there are few frameworks that specifically define capacities for governance. We propose a multidimensional framework of capacities for governance by MoHs that encompasses both the "hard" (de jure, explicit and functional) and "soft" (de facto, tacit, and relational) dimensions of governance, and reflects the diversification of their mandates in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Four case studies illustrate different aspects of the framework. We hope that the framework will have multiple potential benefits including benchmarking MoH governance capacities, identifying and helping analyze capacity gaps, and guiding strategies to strengthen capacity.
15 citations
TL;DR: The COVID-19 pandemic, which brought the world economy to an unprecedented synchronized recession, makes for a profound collective global experience It should urge us to reshape our collective actions as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The COVID‐19 pandemic, which has brought the world economy to an unprecedented synchronized recession, makes for a profound collective global experience It should urge us to reshape our collective actions
11 citations