Inclusive and integrated social health protection: Policy and research priorities to make progress towards Universal Health Coverage and Universal Social Protection

• Concept note and Agenda

While the Asia-Pacific region has been a beacon of innovation in social health protection, progress toward Universal Health Coverage and Universal Social Protection has reached a critical juncture; stalling coverage and rising financial challenges now threaten the financial protection of the region’s most vulnerable, including informal workers, women, and international migrants. Today, systemic funding gaps and a lack of integrated care continue to drive catastrophic out-of-pocket spending, risking a reversal of decades of economic and social gains.

With the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals deadline fast approaching, the ILO, AIHD and the P4H Network are convening an essential regional forum to address these priority challenges. We invite policymakers, academia, and practitioners to join us in exploring innovative and impactful solutions and forging the resilient, inclusive pathways necessary to ensure that health and social protection become a reality for all in South East Asia.

Bringing together distinguished panels of experts from across the region, the two-day event will aim to:

• Translate research findings into actionable policy reforms to accelerate progress towards the twin objectives of universal health coverage and universal social protection across Southeast Asia.
• Identify pioneering models for the extension of population coverage to vulnerable populations and ensuring the adequacy of the protection afforded.
• Deliberate on the reforms needed to bridge social health protection financing gaps, ensuring social health protection systems are both adequately funded and resilient to withstand future shocks.
• Explore opportunities to strengthen the linkages and integration between health coverage and social protection cash benefits to ensure no one is left behind.

Overview of sessions

The event will explore innovations and priorities across a variety of themes over the two days through the following sessions.

Day 1

• Session 1: Extending social health protection to workers in informal employment: innovative practices across the region
• Session 2: Reaching migrant workers and their families to extend legal and effective social health protection coverage
• Session 3: Improving the adequacy of social health protection to address out-of-pocket health expenditure across the region
• Session 4: Addressing financing gaps in social health protection in a fluid international context
  

Day 2

• Session 5: Integrated social protection during maternity: Report Launch
• Session 6: Coordinated approaches to make progress towards social justice and health equity
• P4H National Health Insurance Clinics tackling operational challenges, including
  • Information systems and digitalisation;
  • Sustainability and financial management;
  • Partnerships for coverage extension;
  • Monitoring and evaluation.

We invite you to join this pivotal dialogue and contribute your expertise to a collective mission that will redefine the future of health equity and social justice across the region.

This event benefits from the financial support from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg under the project Building Social Protection Floors for All: Support to the Extension of Social Health Protection in Asia, from Mahidol University, and from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) under the project Strengthening Social Health Protection and the health dividends of social protection policies through P4H partners and other partnerships.