Distinguished speakers and participants, ladies, and gentlemen
Although I am sorry, I am not able to address you in person, I am nonetheless happy to be able to deliver a few closing remarks to you.
I am pleased to hear of the active participation and engaging discussions between countries and experts, and I believe we have successfully achieved our meeting objectives.
Once again, this year’s meeting contributed to the continuous efforts of countries to improve their health expenditure tracking capacity and generated important future directions for all of us towards better NHA in the Asia Pacific.
I would like to highlight three messages that I hope you will share with your colleagues and partners in your country:
- First, as many of you repeatedly highlighted, the institutionalized approach to health accounts is key for us to be able to produce evidence to monitor the performance of health systems. Also, evidence to monitor and assess the implications of policies and strategies we are recommending and implementing. Therefore, member states are advised to continue taking actions in this regard. I urge them to build more technical capacities and making attempts to produce NHA regularly and enhance its use. Please rest assured that WHO, together with OECD and other partners, will continue providing the support you need.
- Second, as we discussed this year, the population dynamics are changing in the region. NCDs, along with the injuries, are the number one cause of mortality and morbidity. Yet, we lack solid evidence to design health financing policies. Rehabilitation and long-term care are the least tracked expenditure in the health system. At the same time, it gives us opportunities to revisit the health policies for increased equity and efficiency of public resources for rehabilitation and long-term care. Despite challenges, together with our partners WHO is in the process of producing methodological guidelines. I encourage member states to pursue this path and produce more reliable evidence. This will allow us to better plan for the future, and also allocate resources more effectively given other pressing priorities.
- And my third message is related to pharmaceutical expenditure tracking. As we all know, medicines are the main drivers of out-of-pocket expenditure. Both regions are working towards better pharmaceutical policies, and we need sound evidence to better understand country’s pharmaceutical system. This will also allow us to monitor strategies and policies. Therefore, I urge all Member States to step up their efforts in tracking pharmaceutical expenditures at all levels of the health system, to better inform health financing policies towards greater financial protection.
Next year, our South-East Asia Regional Office will be the main host of the NHA meeting. We welcome your suggestions to make the next year’s meeting relevant, useful, and a great learning experience for all.
I thank you all for your engagement and insights, and extend my gratitude to WHO WPRO, OECD, and the World Bank for organizing this meeting.