Monrovia, 8^th August 2017: A three day National Health Financing conference convened by the Ministry of Health with support from the World Bank, WHO and USAID gets underway in Monrovia on Tuesday August 8.

The conference which is scheduled to take place at the Monrovia City Hall will bring together key stake holders from the legislature, private sectors, development partners, political parties, NGOs and local government authorities to dialogue on how to design and implement health financing reform intended to move Liberia towards the Universal Health Coverage (UHC)  in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) number three to endure healthy life. A health Ministry release said discussions at the conference will also help advance planning for short and medium term reforms to serve as stepping stones and foundation to implement the longer term Liberia Health Equity Fund (LHEF) Concept, which is an insurance scheme for the purpose of achieving the UHC.

It can be recalled that in 2011 Liberia developed its first post conflict National Health Financing Policy and Strategy to guide the Health sector in line with the National Health Policy and plan.The LHEF Concept was later developed in 2013 as an implementing mechanism for the health financing strategy, but implementation was halted due to the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak.

The country has since made significant progress and has continued to make additional advances in its health financing reform agenda .It is expected that the conference will enable stakeholders to reach consensus on how to sequence key health finance reforms necessary to achieve UHC in the long term.