All of the countries that took part were previous L4UHC participants, highlighting their confidence in the programme’s value.

Below we summarise some of key initiatives resulting from the two regional meetings:

• Coaching system launched: A coaching system has been introduced by L4UHC to help participants navigate the political economy and interpersonal issues that can often stand in the way of implementing UHC initiatives. Each participating country will have a local coach, underlining L4UHC’s emphasis on building local capacity and ensuring any solutions are ‘home-grown’ and contextually appropriate. The coaches will provide advice and a sounding board, on a weekly basis, on ways to manage the human dynamics required to build consensus and support to achieve their UHC initiatives, including their Collective Action Initiatives (see below).
• New Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs) rolled out: One of the hallmarks of the L4UHC programme is that the multi-stakeholder teams involved in the programme from each country collectively develop practical initiatives that they agree to implement in their countries, typically within 100 days. Examples of these initiatives include:

  Asia
  –  Nepal is creating a national health financing plan and a 5-year health insurance plan;
  –  Pakistan is developing a long-term universal health insurance financing plan
  –  Cambodia is aligning referral system programmes with key policy documents

  Africa
  – Burkina Faso plans to extend acute medical unit coverage to the self-employed and those in the informal economy
  – Cameroon is running an awareness and mobilization campaign to accelerate support for UHC
  –  Chad intends to roll out health insurance schemes
  – Niger is operationalizing the National Institute for Medical Insurance (INAM)
  

An update will follow next month including indicators and timelines. The country teams are currently working on those points.