One of the most urgent development challenges facing many low and middle income countries is the need for adequate financing systems to pay for health care provision to the estimated 1.3 billion impoverished people living in rural areas or working in the informal sector in urban areas. This publication considers ways of improving the financing of health care at low income levels, as part of a global strategy for increased investment in health and poverty reduction. Topics discussed include: global and regional trends in healthcare financing; strengths and weaknesses of community-based health financing, and experiences in Asia and Africa; country case studies using household survey analysis from Senegal, Rwanda, India and Thailand; deficit financing; and the impact of risk sharing on achieving health system goals.

Policy, performance and finance are the issues currently headlining the healthcare agenda and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Drawing on experiences from around the world, this essential collection examines the key strategic issues facing health services and analyzes the policy implications of leading new research. The volume brings together 16 newly-commissioned studies from leading experts in health studies, in particular: policy, economics, health care management and health services research. International in perspective and scope, it draws on empirical evidence from East and West Europe, Canada, New Zealand and the Middle East. Themes covered include: health policy and technology assessment, policy and performance, international policy innovation, and organizational innovation. This ground-breaking collection will prove a valuable guide for policy makers, managers, practitioners, researchers and students.

Ethiopia implemented the Health Financing Progress Matrix, WHO’s standardized qualitative assessment of health financing systems, to contribute to the refinement of health financing policies and strategies with the aim of accelerating progress to UHC. A first assessment was initiated using version 1.0 in 2019, with subsequent updates based on version 2.0 released in December 2020. This summary report of findings and recommendations, highlights current areas of strength and weakness in Ethiopia’s health financing system, together with priority areas where shifts need to be made to accelerate progress to UHC.

In straightforward, non-technical language, the book demystifies the modelling process and provides step-by-step guidance, demonstrating how managers and policy-makers can best make use of models in the formation of health policy goals, the identification of options, and the analysis and implementation of results.

The speed with which the various economies recover from the Covid-19 pandemic will significantly determine the economic pressure placed on the environment in the medium-to-long-term. Furthermore, the pandemic has highlighted the strong interrelations between natural and societal systems, with societal resilience depending on a resilient environmental support system. In this context, the book argues that the pandemic represents a wake-up call for financial systems to be better prepared for the climate crisis and social risk, and has provided a stimulus to scale down the reliance of the global economy on fossil fuels. The first part of the book provides a deep and creative discussion between leading international researchers and experts on the policy options and financial instruments which can help to catalyze the green finance transition in the post-Covid-19 era. The contributions show that sustainable finance is emerging as a powerful tool to advance the transition towards a more environmentally and socially sustainable economic model. Instruments such as sovereign green bonds, green securities, and other sustainability-related securities can play a significant role in the post-Covid-19 world to fund economic stimulus and to lead the way to new and more sustainable future. The second part of the book supports the debate by highlighting a number of selected case studies on financing transitions in different regional contexts including Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The book marks a significant contribution to the literature on environmental economics and finance, climate change, and sustainability transitions. Chapter 12 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.