Tanzania is home to the third highest population of stunted children in Sub-Saharan Africa, with about 2.7 million children under the age of five failing to reach their full potential of growth attainment compared with the reference population as per the World Health Organization standards....

Bangladesh is committed to achieving universal health coverage (UHC) by 2032; to this end, the government of Bangladesh is exploring policy options to increase fiscal space for health and expand coverage while improving service quality and availability. Despite Bangladesh's impressive strides in...

The report recommends that China maintain the goal and direction of its healthcare reform, and continue the shift from its current hospital-centric model that rewards volume and sales, to one that is centered on primary care, focused on improving the quality of basic health services, and...

The Eastern Europe and Central Asia region has the world's fastestgrowing HIV epidemic. Although still concentrated, the epidemic has diversified, affecting several key populations in many countries. This change has increased the number of people in need, the ways the epidemic can spread, and...

Lao PDR has made notable progress in improving maternal health, with materanal mortality decreasing from 1,600 per 100,000 births in 1990 to 220 in 2013.1 However, in order for further gains to be realized, at least two barriers need to be addressed - the low utilization of maternal health (MH)...

Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, notes that we stand at a critical threshold for global health and development. Too many women and children are still dying because they lack access to quality health care, especially in the least developed countries. He talks about shifting focus...

This report summarizes the main findings from the application of performance based incentives linked to progress on a standardized, globally recognized metric - the stepwise laboratory improvement process towards accreditation (SLIPTA) checklist - under the East Africa Public Health Laboratory...

As Lao PDR prepares to graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status by 2020 to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030, it also expects to face declining funding from external sources and the need to increase domestic financing for health. This report aims to provide a snapshot of...

This chapter describes and seeks to take stock of a cluster of supply-side reforms that aimed to revitalize what was described by the Croatian Public Health Institute as a passive and low-impact primary care system. The cluster of reforms, which include a mix of organizational, primary care...

Sri Lanka's health system has a long track record of strong performance. This case study describes the main features and achievements of Sri Lanka's high-performing health system, to distill lessons for the rest of the world. UNICO case studies focus on a particular health coverage program. In...