December 2020: Universal Health Coverage and Social Protection
December 2020: Universal Health Coverage and Social Protection
Welcome to the the last edition of our 2020 monthly newsletter!
When looking back at 2020, it is impossible not to reflect on the negative impacts that the COVID-19 crisis had on health systems, societies and economies across the globe. Although the consequences of the pandemic have been devastating, they have also shed light on the importance of investing in social protection to reduce poverty and vulnerability to risks and strengthen countries’ and people’s resilience. Responding to COVID-19 has also evidenced the crucial role of cooperation among governments, international organisations and NGOs and brought us the opportunity to discuss best practices on the design and delivery of social protection programmes. We hope that in 2021 the tough lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis can guide us closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including targets 1.3 (implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors) and 3.8 (achieve universal health coverage). Considering that health was at the centre of many important debates this year, and in celebration of the International Universal Health Coverage Day (December 12) the topic of our last newsletter of 2020 is Universal Health Coverage and Social Protection.
The Global Health Expenditure Database (GHED) from the World health Organization (WHO) provides internationally comparable data on health spending for close to 190 countries from 2000 to 2018. The database is open access and supports the goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by helping monitor the availability of resources for health and the extent to which they are used efficiently and equitably.
Visit the Social Protection Responses to COVID-19 Online Community (OC)! It remains a valuable space to find and share resources on countries' different social protection responses to the COVID-19 crisis. We are updating it regularly with members' and partners' suggestions. In the past month, some of the materials related to this newsletter´s topic were:
Other news related to this OC are on their way: to keep the discussions on this topic alive we will soon start promoting debates and webinars, besides making other resources available, such as an interactive dashboard with social protection responses to COVID-19.
A spoiler for next year: to improve our users' experience, important technical developments in all the Online Communities are being put in place. Stay tuned!
