Objectives
The objectives of the workshop are as follows:
  1. Facilitate inter-state sharing of experiences on health financing policies and strategies to improve financial access to health services for the poor and individuals without health insurance;

  2. Share knowledge, evidence and best practices from health financing mechanisms or options that target the poor from other African and developing countries; which have implications for Nigerian states;

  3. Document lessons learned and best practices (focusing on the "how") shared during the workshop on improving financial access to the poor; while developing realistic and actionable technical recommendations to policy makers and programme managers in the public sector, private sector, CSOs and development partners (also related to the 'how'); and
     
  4. Initiate an inter-state learning platform that promotes knowledge sharing on implementation of health financing policies and mechanisms; which will be linked to institutional technical support.

Expected Outputs

  There will be four main outputs from the workshop.
  1. A set of policy briefs comprising of policy relevant issues that are informed by evidence and will including immediate, medium, and long term actionable steps. The briefs will be used to engage policy makers in the country towards improving policy formulation, policy statements and revision of existing health financing policies and mechanisms.

  2. Actionable ideas identified for responsible parties by the participating entities to improve financing mechanisms, processes, allocation and utilization of financial resources.

  3. A resource-kit comprising of a technical documentation of best practices on sustainable health financing policies for the poor for use by government and non-state actors. The resource-kit will detail elements that are critical for the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of financing policies and mechanisms that improve access to health services. It will be informed by the knowledge, evidence and key issues emerging from the workshop (presentations and analytical work).

  4. A website-based knowledge learning platform/hub of federal, state and LGA level actors, CSOs, private sector, development partners and all other stakeholders involved within the health sector in Nigeria working on health financing issues will be established. The knowledge learning platform will have institutional linkages that will provide technical expertise, as may be required post-workshop to guide design, implementation, documentation, monitoring and evaluation of the financing mechanisms.