Summary (English)

As a partner of the Providing for Health (P4H) initiative, ILO participated in a P4H mission to Sri Lanka in October 2010, upon the request of the country’s Ministry of Health. This report outlines the outcomes of the scoping mission to support in developing a health financing strategy and health financing options for universal coverage and social health protection. Despite Sri Lanka’s remarkable economic growth, improvements in the public health sector have been insignificant. Substantial inequalities in access and in the delivery of health services exist for the rural and urban population. Further, out-of-pocket payments exceeding 50% of total health expenditure indicate low quality of health services and present considerable financial barriers which may impoverish those most in need.

During the mission, areas were identified for further P4H support related to health,  including:

• analytical work (such as pooling options for high OOP, efficiency issues, coordination of various existing schemes and the regulation of private insurers),
• capacity building to strengthen the Ministry of Health (for example, in health economics),
• developing a national forum on social health protection, a multi-sectoral committee with the mandate of developing a national health protection strategy, as well as implementing country group to drive these processes.
• policies and programmes in the context of the Social Protection Floor were identified as an important area of support.

Next steps were also conceptualized, including the development of a roadmap for technical support from P4H to Sri Lanka in developing a National Strategy for Universal Coverage and Social Health Protection, as well as the establishment of a core country team.