310

[Action 4: Expand capacity of WBG staff in health financing. Indicator: % of HNP GP GF+ staff with minimum HF competencies. FY15 (baseline): 41% FY16: 46% FY17: 48% FY18 (target): 50%]
[Action 5: Establish GP HF focal point. Indicator: HF Global Solution Area Leader role established and filled. FY15 (baseline): Complete FY16: Complete FY18 (target): Complete]
Enhancing the central coordination of health financing initiatives with a designated Global Lead and a formal GSG has strengthened the WBG's health financing capabilities. Indicators show the results of Action 5 as complete since FY16, with the appointment of the Global Lead, and a sustained improvement on Action 4, which shows increasing health financing competency among 48% or more of the staff members at or above GF level in HNP GP.
Establishing a Global Lead for the HF GSG created a unified leadership and coordination focal point for the HF GSG. In hiring the Global Lead through a competitive process, the HNP GP signaled the importance and priority placed on health financing, reinforcing it as a core comparative advantage of the WBG. The Global Lead role requires strong content ownership and leadership expertise, in order to coordinate delivery across a wide range of targeted technical priorities and activities designed to strengthen the capacities of the staff members affiliated with the HF GSG.
The HF GSG is on track to grow health financing competency among HNP staff to the target of 50% or more staff members at GF level and above by FY18, through the development and implementation of a robust ongoing HF GSG operating model. First, a Strategic Advisory Panel, formed by and for the HF GSG, helps mobilize and match global experts and Working Groups to health financing technical priorities and activities. Second, special partnerships work to shape the global health financing agenda. These include: UHC 2030, which unites a multi-stakeholder platform to promote work on strengthening country health systems to accelerate the path towards UHC in 2030 P4H, a global health partnership aiming at improving social health protection and strengthening health financing systems to promote UHC in low and middle-income countries and the Joint Learning Network, a global network whose members co-develop knowledge products to aid global work on health systems strengthening. The HF GSG launched four Working Groups (WGs) on key strategic topics in health financing - data, resource mobilization, strategic purchasing, and social health insurance - which bring together experts from across the HNP GP and WBG. Next, a Community of Practice (CoP) is in formation to bring together Health Financing knowledge and experience of staff in an informal forum. To further accelerate the growth of health financing competency among HNP staff, another recruiting effort for the HF GSG will be conducted in FY18. Together, these initiatives are cultivating a dynamic community that builds upon itself, feeding growth and innovation by connecting colleagues to the wealth of health financing knowledge and support available within and beyond HNP GP.
To illustrate, the Data Working Group has developed a robust work program that includes several components aiming to develop the capabilities of WBG staff in analytics relevant to health financing. The core work streams of the Data Working Group include: (i) supporting effective database use by HNP GP staff (ii) improving health financing data guidance, support and learning opportunities for HNP GP staff, including a review of guidelines for public expenditure reviews (PERs) (iii) improving coordination, knowledge sharing, and quality assurance across HNP GP activities and (iv) leading improvements of global data management approaches and support mechanisms, including a collaboration with WHO on strengthening the approach towards managing the global national health account (NHA) database. All of these workstreams focus on developing the capabilities of the staff members within HNP GP in health financing and are expected to ramp up to full speed in FY18.
The growth of the HF GSG has also been accompanied by a high participation rate among members. In FY17, 94% of affiliates participated in one or more key initiatives of the HF GSG. This metric was consistent across colleagues from the headquarters and the country offices. The average participation for members of the GSG was in 2.14 out of 5 key initiatives, revealing significant dedication from members and a high degree of collective leadership within the HF GSG, a reflection of the opportunities for the staff capacity development offered by the HF GSG for those interested in health financing topics. The HF GSG centers around five pillars that, together, build HF knowledge and cultivate talent within the WBG: (i) knowledge generation (through research, tools and SOP) (ii) knowledge curation, sharing and learning (through HF GSG communications, learning activities and knowledge curation and sharing) (iii) country and regional team support (through presentations, clinics, engagement support and trainings) (iv) talent development and deployment (with professional development opportunities in technical activities and partnerships) and (v) global and partner engagement (with knowledge exchange gatherings, partner support and joint work programs). Together, the agenda of the HF GSG creates a platform within the HNP GP and WBG that develops interest in health financing and cultivates talent in this area within the organization.
HF GSG priorities have further evolved based on the findings of a comprehensive portfolio review and HF GSG survey, around four key categories within health financing: system design and performance, resource mobilization, pooling, and allocation/purchasing. The Global Lead, together with the HF GSG, helped define and channel the work of the HF GSG around the most pressing topics within each of these categories. For system design and performance, the HF GSG is moving towards the topics of capacity building and health security. Under resource mobilization, key topics are planning and budgeting, earmarking, and fiscal decentralization. For pooling, the focus is planned for the extension of social health insurance to the informal sector and social health insurance regulation, and under allocating/purchasing, the main areas for discussion are blended benefits package design, provider payment mechanisms and market and provider regulation.
In addition to cultivating health financing knowledge within the HNP GP and WBG, the HF GSG has also led a hiring initiative to recruit new HF talent to the WBG. Over the past 12 months, several positions have been created within the HF GSG and GFF that reflect the high priority of growing health financing within the HNP GP and WBG. These positions have attracted additional top talent to the WBG to continue developing its competitive advantage in health financing.
The FY17 result for Action 5 likely understates the true health financing capabilities present within the HNP GP, due to methodological constraints. In FY15 and FY16, health financing competency was estimated using the results of a GSG affiliation survey. In the absence of an updated survey, the FY17 analysis includes GF+ level staff members active on the official HF GSG roster, formation of which also followed a detailed HNP GP-wide survey of health financing skills and experience, as having demonstrated minimum health financing competency. However, this metric does not include Practice Managers and others on the HNP GP Leadership Team, a number of whom have demonstrated health financing competencies but are not formally aligned to the HF GSG. To that end, a new survey of HNP GP staff is planned for FY18.