Global Health Policy Forum

How to provide high quality, equitable, yet affordable health services is one of the most pressing questions facing governments today. In many developed health systems, increasing costs and seemingly insatiable demand combine to exert expenditure pressures that crowd out other important priorities and may ultimately be unsustainable. The challenge for emerging and developing countries is more about expanding coverage, but they too must be careful not to generate unsustainable pressure on public resources. Everywhere, health systems must respond to citizens’ rising expectations about the quality and responsiveness of their services.

And it’s not just that many healthcare systems look increasingly ill-suited to meet these challenges. Health needs are also set to change radically in the coming years with the explosion of non-communicable diseases, ‘lifestyle conditions’ like obesity and, for many countries, rapidly ageing populations. To meet these future needs a new way of doing things must be found.

Rising to these challenges will require more effective health policy, capable of encouraging and scaling innovation in how health services are delivered. Whilst traditional global health problems (such as infectious diseases and vaccine programmes) are well- served by a number of international bodies, knowledge about what makes health systems successful, what policy solutions are effective, and the most promising innovations in healthcare delivery is not generated or exchanged internationally by a dedicated organisation. We also believe that the innovation required to satisfy the health needs of the future can be facilitated not only by sharing experience internationally, but also by closer collaboration between governments, industry, academia and non-governmental organisations.