Spotlight on Bangladesh CCG

Bangladesh has been a valuable member of the JLN since 2015 and became a Full Member in 2017. The country has made great strides in their UHC journey tapping into the JLN and also contributing immensely by sharing their experiences that have helped others in the Network. There are ongoing healthcare reforms that involve reviewing of the Health Financing Strategy that will be key in informing the health priorities of the country. The current priorities include health financing with a focus on resource mobilisation; improving the primary care service delivery; and building a telemedicine system.

Bangladesh has been prompt in participating in JLN activities besides learning by responding to surveys that help shape the JLN technical priorities and also responsive to requests to share UHC information from the country to JLN. They have actively participated in the Steering Group elections and even served as a member.

In forming the Country Core Group (CCG), the country strives to always ensure diversity of the team. Currently, members consist of experts and officials from various sectors and institutions in the health sector. These include the Health Services, Health Economics, Finance, Planning, Health Information, Program Management, Academia and Development Partners. The CCG meets at least 4 to 5 times a year. Due to the multifaceted roles of the members that are mostly drawn from the civil service, it necessitates efficient coordination and flexible scheduling of meetings to ensure the active and vibrant participation of CCG members in JLN initiatives amidst their busy schedules and diverse professional engagements.

Bangladesh is very proactive in engaging in JLN learning opportunities. They have been members of the following collaborative- Efficiency; Domestic Resource Mobilization; Primary Health Care Financing and Payment; Negotiated Solutions for Purchasing of Expensive Medicines; Primary Health Care Measurement for Improvement; Population Targeting; and National Coordination of Pandemic Response. They have also participated in the following learning exchanges: Institutionalising Explicit Processes for Setting National Health Priorities; Primary Health Care Financing and Payment; Budget Execution; Strategic Communication; Implementing and Measuring the Performance of Primary Care Networks (PCNs); Pricing Strategies for Medical Products; and Patient Pathways and Pandemics: COVID-19 and Beyond

The CCG has a process in place that ensures the dissemination of learnings that involves filling a form that provides feedback to the Minister and sharing learnings at different forums. This keeps the top senior officers (Minister and Secretary) in the loop of what is going on in the JLN. The JLN Knowledge Products resulting from the collaboratives the members participate in are sent to the relevant ministries. In the wake of COVID 19 which resulted in online engagement in JLN learnings, this posed a great challenge for members’ participation and hence are excited about the return of the in-person engagements.

Bangladesh has benefitted greatly by using JLN Knowledge Products such as the Costing of Health Services for Provider Payment: A Practical Manual based on Country Costing Challenges, Trade-offs and Solutions. Most recently, they have developed the Health Benefits Package using the JLN Making Explicit Choices on The Path To UHC: The Health Benefits Package Revision Guide. The country has also piloted some Knowledge Products produced by the Efficiency Collaborative and hopes to scale up once funding is secured to measure efficiency at different levels of the health system. Going forward, the country is planning to establish a  Social Health Insurance Scheme for public servants but many citizens are in the informal sector hence a need to develop a benefit package for the informal sector. The CCG is looking to support the process using JLN Knowledge Products. Other areas of interest that JLN products are needed include:

•       Guidance for targeting the informal sector.
•       Negotiating for pharmaceuticals and essential medicines as current contracts come to an end

The great work of the CCG has not been without challenges such as:

•   Transferred of CCG member
• s to other offices and ministries, this necessitates reconstitution and this disrupts the operations. However, the CCG mitigates this by sensitising new members on JLN once they come on board.
•   Competing responsibilities with
  the roles of the CCG, affects the active and effective participation of members.
•  Transfer of members who participate in learnings and who were members of the CCG leads to loss of knowledge.
•  Poor participation of members in online engagements 

We applaud the great efforts of Bangladesh in the JLN and specifically recognise that all this is possible due to the efforts and commitment of the CCG members that make a vibrant CCG.