Smoothing Painful Bumps on the Path to Universal Health Coverage: Strengthening Governance for Quality Care


On Tuesday, June 5, 2018, USAID’s Health Financing and Governance Project (HFG) organized with USAID’s Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) project, the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN), and the World Health Organization (WHO) a special learning event entitled, “Smoothing Painful Bumps on the Path to Universal Health Coverage: Strengthening Governance for Quality Care” which showcased findings from three years of collaborative work on strengthening governance to improve quality of health service delivery.

Opening remarks, highlighting the importance of governance to quality health services, were provided by Jodi Charles and Shamsuzzoha (Shams) Syed, who spoke via livestream from Geneva. Opening remarks were followed by two-panel discussions. The first panel focused on country experiences in governing for quality from Ghana, Uganda, and several Far East Asian countries (gathered through on-going USAID Asia Bureau-funded research). The second panel focused on recommendations for key investments that are still needed to strengthen governance for quality improvement led by international experts, including representatives from the Mexico Ministry of Health, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and Results for Development.

More than 50 people attended the Washington DC event in-person, with another 80 participants joining online.

Program Agenda

Featured Speakers and Moderators:

  • Vivian Addo-Cobbiah, Acting Director of Quality Assurance, Ghana National Health Insurance Agency 
  • Pierre Barker, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Chief Global Partnerships & Programs Officer
  • Bob Fryatt, Project Director, HFG Project
  • Jodi Charles, Senior Health Systems Advisor, USAID Office of Health Systems
  • Adam Koon, Governance Specialist,  HFG Project
  • Gina Lagomarsino, President & CEO, Results for Development
  • Rashad Massoud, Project Director, ASSIST project
  • Esther Karamagi Nkolo, Uganda Chief of Party, ASSIST project
  • Paulina Pacheco, Director of Interinstitutional Entailment & Follow-Up to the International Agenda of Quality in Healthcare, Ministry of Health, Mexico
  • Shams Syed (via video), Coordinator, Universal Health Coverage & Quality Unit, Department of Service Delivery and Safety, World Health Organization
  • Lisa Tarantino, Principal Associate, HFG Project

This event is part of the HFG Project’s Advances in Health Finance and Governance series, which highlights lessons learned from the HFG Project’s work over five years in more than 40 countries.

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