Health Protection Schemes and Maternal and Newborn Health: Role of the Sehat Sahulat Programme in Pakistan

To improve health outcomes and alleviate the financial burden of ill health, the federal and provincial governments have introduced a key social health protection program, Sehat Sahulat Programme (SSP), to cover more than 170 million Pakistanis, in addition to the existing relatively very small social health protection schemes under Zakat and Bait-ul-Mal.

Costing Zambia's Commitment to Reach the Every Newborn Action Plan Target 4

In the context of an increasing neonatal mortality trend for Zambia, the government has embarked upon the task of mobilising resources for the scale-up of level-2 inpatient care for small and sick newborns (SSNBs). Global guidelines and standards have been adapted to ensure best practice informs service delivery so that the scale-up leads not both increased coverage and improved quality of care. Costing "what it takes" to scale up quality of care in the country highlights pragmatic considerations and trade-offs that are usually off-sight when costings are estimated drawing on global parameters.

How Much Do Vulnerable Groups Count in the Global Financing Facility? Content Analysis of Stillbirths and Maternal-Newborn Investments in Policy Documents for 10 African Countries

The Global Financing Facility (GFF) aims to accelerate progress to meet 2030 Sustainable Development Goals for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH-N). Our study examines how GFF policy documents address maternal and newborn health (MNH) plus stillbirths, given the high burden this group bears relative to investments made.

Remodelling the Government Resource Allocation to Address Inequities in Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (SRMNCAH&N) in Zambia

Resource allocation is the distribution of resources among competing groups of people or programs. Historically, the Ministry of Health in Zambia used the incremental budgeting method before shifting to a population-based resource allocation criteria. The population-based resource allocation criteria was later enhanced to include deprivation or poverty and discretionary proportional allocation based on demographic characteristics of the district. The current factors applied in the resource allocation are heavy on the demand side with no or little focus on the supply side. The resource allocation criteria did not address the capacity of districts to provide sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition (SRMNCAHN) services. The objective of this paper is to develop a hybrid resource allocation formula that incorporates needs and equity with a view to allocating more resources to areas with higher capacity constraints to provide SRMNCAHN services.