JICA GLO + UHC Project Phase 2

21/07/2023

Thai-Sudan Joint Technical Seminar on Provider Payment Mechanism

28 February 2023

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On 28 February 2023, NHSO and National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) of the Republic of Sudan in collaboration with the GLO+UHC 2 Project and JICA project “The Project on Human Resource Development for Social Health Insurance toward Universal Health Coverage” in Sudan (hereinafter referred to as 'Sudan UHC Project') held “Thai-Sudan Joint Technical Seminar on Provider Payment Mechanism” online as a follow-up seminar to Sudan’s study visit to Thailand, i.e. UHC Training in Thailand in October 2022 (please see comment below). More than 20 participants from Sudan, including NHIF officials and experts from Sudan UHC Project and from Thailand, including NHSO officials and JICA GLO+UHC 2 members attended the seminar.

At the beginning of the seminar, NHIF official provided their reflection on what they learned about the operation of the universal health care (UHC) system in Thailand from their visit in October 2022. NHSO then provided an overview of the outpatient budget and payment system in Bangkok, and a detailed explanation of the calculation methodology for Differential Capitation Budget.

While all provider payments are currently made on Fee-for-Service basis in Sudan, NHIF is considering to introduce the capitation payment to their outpatient payment. In the latter half of the seminar, the participants from Sudan asked many technical questions to the NHSO, and active discussion and exchange of opinions took place. Through this technical seminar, the Sudan side was able to learn the details of Thailand’s outpatient payment mechanism.

We appreciate the collaboration and cooperation that made this seminar happens. The activities with NHIF and Sudan UHC Project highlights the significance of partnership as an SDG 17 to achieve UHC. We believe that the learning from the seminar supports the future development of Sudan UHC. GLO+UHC2 will continue to work with the Sudan UHC Project to support ongoing dialogue for further development of UHC in both countries.

11/07/2023

The site visits for early childhood development centers operated with a focus on breastfeeding, development, and nurturing care along with learning at Mahasarakam and Khonkaen Province.
Date: 13- 14th March 2023
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The site visit for early childhood development centers operated with a focus on breastfeeding, development, and nurturing care along with learning at Mahasarakam Province was held on 13 to 14 March 2023. The issue regarding Universal Health Coverage for Children (U4C) is one the areas GLO+UHC2 is working. Many partners from Mahasarakam and Khonkaen province, such as NHSO, Mahasarakam university and Suddhavej Childpark, had also joined this site visit.

On the first day, the participants visited Early childhood development promotion center” Regional health promotion center 7, Khonkaen province and exchange the knowledge regarding the Childcare in the local context. The Child care center at region 7 has been established since 1966. They have implemented both daycare activity accordingly with the national regulations and adapting it with the curriculum using in the daycare.
The participants moved to Suandek Suddhavej, MSK medical center, MSK University, Mahasarakam. The Suandek Suddhavej showed their daycare center how they treat and educate children in their center, and explained curriculum, value, mission and challenge. And then, the participants moved to MSK university and had a meeting to share their views and opinions on how to promote Thai daycare system further. In this meeting, GLO+UHC2 introduced their activities regarding U4C and Dr. Siraporn Sawasdivorn, MD. gave a comprehensive lecture, which tile was “Life preparation for living in new era, the role of early childcare center and an example study topic: Implanting healthy behaviors in children to prevent diseases of the 21st century”.

Following this, we had a productive exchange of ideas and perspectives during our visit to Suddhavej Child Park at Mahasarakam University. Throughout the discussion, we gained valuable insights into the current state and difficulties surrounding childcare and breastfeeding in Thailand. One aspect that stood out at Suddhavej Child Park was their intriguing approach of incorporating the local context and environment into their children's development curriculum. Their emphasis on nature-based care for children was particularly interesting.

On the last day, we had a wonderful time visiting Ban Hnongjik in Borabue District and the Keng Muang District's Subdistrict Municipality. Both places provided insights into their efforts in maternal and childcare within their communities, as well as the challenges they face in managing childcare services in the local context. It helps us learn and deepen the understanding that the local authorities are committed to addressing maternal and childcare issues by utilizing budgetary support from the central authorities.

As the GLO+UHC project, our objective is to advocate for equal access to essential, quality and affordable healthcare for everyone. We recognize the importance and significance of maternal and childcare work, both nationally and internationally. This site visit provided us with valuable experiences that can be adapted to our project. We are determined to utilize the knowledge and insights shared by both Thailand and Japan to continually develop and improve maternal and childcare initiatives.

We would like to thank all the institutions, presenters and attendants for the warm welcome, providing such a great opportunity and sharing valuable knowledge and information.

02/07/2023

28/06/2023

Global Health Diplomacy Workshop 2023
Date: 27-28 April 2023

Global Health Diplomacy (GHD) Workshop 2023 was held online on 27-28 April, organized by International Health Policy Program (IHPP) of Ministry of Public Health, Thailand in collaboration with the WHO Country Cooperation Strategy on Enhancing Leadership in Global Health (Enlight) and GLO+UHC2. The objective of the workshop was to deepen the understanding of the global health movement, directions and platforms, WHO’s structure and mandate, and the new global health architecture. In addition, the workshop aimed to share the experience on global health, and to develop the capacity on global health of the participants as a country’s delegate to international meetings.

GHD Workshop 2023 provided seven sessions* and around 70 participants from Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and Maldives, joined. GLO+UHC2 supported to invite Japanese resource persons to GHD Workshop as a lecturer/panelist. Three Japanese resource persons from Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, National Center for Global Health and Medicine and Tokyo Women’s Medical University, provided lectures on “Japan’s experience on global health,” “Global directions related to SDGs” and “The new global health architecture,” respectively. Furthermore, GLO+UHC2 contributed to sharing experience gained from project activities, gave a presentation about “The significance of collaboration and the importance of partnership in the context of SDGs” and joined the panel discussions with other Thai lecturers.
* The list of sessions
1. Global health definition, movement
2. Global health platforms
3. World Health Organization (WHO)
4. Country experience in Global Health
5. Global direction: SDGs
6. The new global health architecture
7. Outside-in and Inside-Out

The project would be pleased if the GHD Workshop 2023 could help participants deepen their understanding and broaden their views on global health, and lead to further promotion of global health agenda.

We would like to thank all the participants, lecturers, panelists, facilitators and organizers for joining and supporting GHD Workshop 2023. We also would like to express our sincere gratitude to IHPP for providing us with the opportunity to connect with the participants.

25/06/2023

16/06/2023

The 4th Workshop of Online Workshop Series on Continuing Professional Development for Nurses: How to Take Action for Future Plan
Date: 16 February 2023
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The 4th workshop of the Online Workshop Series on Continuing Professional Development ( ) for Nurses was held on 16 February 2023. Around 40 participants and 30 observers from 12 countries joined. The 4th workshop was also the final workshop of the series having two panel discussions that aimed to find the way forward for all the participating countries. Four experts from the Australian College of Nursing, Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council, WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia and Regional Office for the Western Pacific joined the panels as well as the representatives from the participating countries.

The theme of the first panel was “how to regulate the CPD system in response to the health needs of the country” and countries where the CPD system is currently being developed or has just begun joined the panel discussion. Panellists confirmed the importance of legislation for CPD and legally ensuring the provision of CPD opportunities for nurses. Most of the countries joining the workshop have mandated or considering mandating CPD for nurses and linking it with license renewal with the aim to enhance the quality of nursing. One of the experts pointed out that when considering the linking, CPD programs need to be available and accessible for all nurses so that all nurses who wish to keep their licenses can obtain the required number of CPD credits in a certain time. It was also mentioned that there should be an alternative way to renew their license such as conducting exams, in case they could not reach the required number of CPD credits. There was also a discussion of having a consistent system for all nurses in the country. It is not easy for nurses working in rural areas in some countries to access CPD opportunities, thus having mandatory CPD for all may not be feasible. However, an expert mentioned that CPD should not be limited to classroom learning, in-service training, attending conferences, etc., but should have alternative ways by using any innovative methods, such as IT technology, that allow even the nurses working in very remote areas to access to various CPD opportunities.

The theme of the second panel discussion was “how to develop the quality of the CPD system and attempted to discuss how to measure the impact of CPD on health needs” and countries where the CPD system has already been developed and seeking a way to improve it joined the second panel.
The panellists shared their experience on having guidelines and financial subsidies to ensure the quality of CPD trainings. They also talked about standardizing the system throughout the country and collaborating with the private sector to provide equal opportunities for all nurses. A panellist presented the government’s monitoring system for CPD crediting system managed by private healthcare institutions. Experts emphasized the importance of having evidence-based CPD programs which require standards for the components including trainers. To set the standards, there is a need for the establishment of a committee that can monitor the programs and give reliable feedback.
When talking about the impact of CPD, we need to focus on healthcare outcomes and inputs to the healthcare system. However, it is well known that no single indicator could measure the impact of CPD, and it is difficult to distinguish the impact of other factors from the impact of CPD when we focus on healthcare outcomes. The experts suggested using measurable indicators such as nurses’ satisfaction, perception of their changes in attitudes, knowledge, skills and/or confidence levels.

Despite having tough questions as the topics of the panel discussions, the panellists shared experiences, opinions and suggestions which enabled all those who participated in the workshop to revise what they have learnt from each other throughout the workshop series and to deepen their learnings.
As the main organizer, we truly hope the participants have gained something that could contribute to moving the agenda forward. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to everyone who participated and supported us.

This workshop was hosted by:
- Asia Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health (AAAH),
- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),
- Ministry of Public Health, Thailand,
- National Health Security Office (NHSO), Thailand,
- Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council (TNMC), and
- GLO+UHC Phase 2

26/04/2023

The 3rd Workshop of Online Workshop Series on Continuing Professional Development for Nurses: CPD System for Specific Fields of Nursing and Specialists and CPD System for Nursing Management / Administration
Date: 29 September 2022
【日本語はこちら：https://www.jica.go.jp/project/thailand/033/news/20220929.html】
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The 3rd workshop of the Online Workshop Series on Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Nurses was held on 29 September 2022. Around 50 participants and 20 observers from 13 countries joined. In the 3rd workshop, we covered two topics: “CPD system for specific fields of nursing and specialists” and “CPD system for nursing management/ administration”.

For the first part of the workshop, “CPD system for specific fields of nursing and specialists”, Prof. Dr. Siriorn Sindhu, President of the Nurses' Association of Thailand, gave a keynote presentation on CPD for nursing specialization in line with health policy. Then, the speakers from Indonesia and Kenya shared their situation and good practices.
Indonesia has set up the nursing specialist system in five fields, namely paediatric, psychiatric, community, maternity, and medical surgical nursing. To become a nursing specialist, one is required to complete the master’s program in the field and then the specialist education stage. Nurses in Indonesia can also obtain certificates of expertise by participating in training activities in specific fields. The training programs are classified into three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced.
The Nursing Council of Kenya has recently approved CPD programs for four specific fields: critical care, mental health, oncology, and midwifery. These fields cover the critical issues that the country is currently dealing with. The provision of training programs in these specific fields has already started in several universities. At the same time, they are working on the development of the programs and system.

For the second part, “CPD system for nursing management/ administration”, Ms. Kaori Hakuno, Chief of the Department of Credentialing, Japanese Nursing Association, explained the Certified Nurse Administrator System in Japan as another keynote presentation. Then, the speakers from Cambodia and Bangladesh shared their situation and good practice.
Cambodia does not yet have a national CPD system for nursing management/ administration, but there are some healthcare institutions that conduct nursing management trainings within their institutions. The speaker from Cambodia shared about the nursing management training conducted in the National Pediatric Hospital which targets all head and deputy head nurses in the hospitals. It aims to improve the knowledge and skills necessary for all managers to become more effective leaders and to contribute to achieving the hospital’s goals.
Like Cambodia, Bangladesh is also at the stage of developing the CPD system. The speaker presented the overview of the CPD system that they are currently working on developing. Management training for administrators is one of the important contents that the country is focusing on.
The speaker from Indonesia joined the discussion and shared about the master’s course for nursing leadership and management specialization in the country.

“CPD System for Specific Fields of Nursing and Specialists” and “CPD System for Nursing Management / Administration” were kind of advanced topics compared to the topic of the 2nd workshop: CPD System for General Nursing. However, we need to find better ways to improve the quality and quantity of nurses and other health workforce, especially in the areas that we covered in this workshop, as the health issues that we are facing are becoming more complex, and medical technologies that nurses need to catch up with are being advanced. Therefore, it was very meaningful for us to hold workshops on these two topics. We would like to express our sincere thanks to everyone involved in this workshop!

This workshop was hosted by:
- Asia Pacific Action Alliance on Human Resources for Health (AAAH),
- Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),
- Ministry of Public Health, Thailand,
- National Health Security Office (NHSO), Thailand,
- Thailand Nursing and Midwifery Council (TNMC), and
- GLO+UHC Phase 2

21/04/2023

The 3rd Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) Meeting of GLO+UHC Phase 2
Date: 28th January 2023
【日本語はこちら：https://www.jica.go.jp/project/thailand/033/news/20230128.html】
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The 3rd Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) was held in a hybrid format. The onsite meeting had been held on the 28th of January 2023 at The Centara Grand Central World, Bangkok, Thailand. From the Thai side, the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), National Health Security Office (NHSO), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and related stakeholders have joined. From the Japan side, the Embassy of Japan in Thailand, JICA HQ, and JICA Thailand office attended.

This 3rd JCC meeting was chaired by Dr. Narong Aphikulvanich, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Health (MOPH). During our first session, Dr. Narong gave us the opening remarks expressing his appreciation for us having an opportunity to meet and discuss the progress of the project. Dr. Suwit Wibulpolprasert, Advisor to the Office of the Permanent Secretary, appreciated what GLO+UHC2 has done so far, such as inputs regarding fee schedule, invitation program to Japan, support for dissemination of experience and knowledge on UHC to global platform. Mr. Kazuya Suzuki, Chief Representative, JICA Thailand Office has also expressed his impression of the strength and commitment work from the Thai side and Japan sides to achieve this project.

Dr. Masato Izutsu, Chief Advisor of JICA Expert team, introduced the new expert Ms. Keiko Mehra. Entering the final year of the project, Dr. Izutsu gave us a presentation about the overall progress of the GLO+UHC throughout 2022 and also the plan for 2023. Dr. Narong and the committees have expressed their interests and also suggestions for the project activities that will be implemented throughout 2023.

Remarkably, , Dr. Viroj Tangcharoensathien, Senior Advisor, International Health Policy Program, gave us very interesting suggestions on strengthening the project activity on Health Workforce. Dr. Osuke Komazawa, Senior Director, Human Development Department, JICA HQ, also gave his appreciation on the progress of GLO+UHC project. He suggested both Japan and Thailand to remind ourselves, as an UHC-experienced country, to keep hearing the voice from other countries, so as to support other country according to the wide variety of context of UHC in each country. Dr. Suwit Wibulpolprasert, Advisor to the Office of the Permanent Secretary, also agreed on this issue and expressed his wishes to improve and tackle the Health workforce challenges with collaborative actions from both Thailand and Japan.

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Narong expressed his wishes to contribute and support GLO+UHC 2 project. He closed the meeting by emphasizing the importance and his appreciation for this project developing and raising Thailand and Japan expertise on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to the International level. He wished that both countries will strengthen our partnership to make this world a safe and better place for all. Ms. Rie Sato, Director, Health Team 4, Health Group 2, Human Development Department, JICA HQ, has also expressed her acknowledgement of the success of GLO+UHC project and impressions of invitation program in November 2022.

The GLO+UHC project will determine to use Thailand and Japan experiences to develop and move the UHC movement at the International Level abidingly.

28/03/2023

Kick-off meeting ＆ Interim report meeting for the IPE (Interprofessional education) Research Activity on the reliability and validity of RIPLS and modified ATHCTS “IPE Assessment Instrument Development”
Date: 5 August 2022, 12 January 2023
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The GLO+UHC Project has been collaborating with National Health Professional Education Foundation (NHPE) since Phase 1 to further promote Interprofessional education (IPE) in Thailand and share experience and knowledge with other ASEAN countries.

As one of the activities, GLO+UHC Project Phase2 and NHPE have now launched IPE collaborative research activities in cooperation with Gunma University, also known as WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training on IPE, with the aim of accelerating IPE and interprofessional work (IPW) toward UHC through promoting IPE assessment instruments.

On 5 August 2022, a kick-off meeting was held online to launch the collaborative research on the development of IPE assessment instrument, attended by researchers in the IPE field from Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, and Thailand.

At the meeting, each country reported on the current status and challenges of IPE implementation, GLO+UHC Project Phase 2 provided general instruction for conducting the validity and reliability research on IPE assessment instrument, and participants discussed the content, methods and way forward for the collaborative research. Subsequently, all countries decided to join the collaborative research activities that makes translated IPE assessment instrument available in each country

On January 12, 2023, an interim briefing session was held to report on the progress of each country, discuss the technical issues on how to combine the each country’s data to produce validity and reliability of IPE assessment instrument, the way forward for collaborative research and how to disseminate research results at the global platform.

GLO+UHC2 will continue to support further development of IPE for UHC in collaboration with participating countries, NHPE and Gunma University WHO-CC.

23/03/2023

The 41st Western Regional Conference of Japan Association for International Health

Date: 3 March 2023

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On 3rd March, the chief advisor of GLO+UHC Phase 2 has given an oral presentation, titled “Nexus approaches to promoting UHC: The experience and lessons learnt from JICA’s project ‘The Partnership Project for Global Health and Universal Health Coverage’ in Thailand” at the 41st Western Regional Conference of Japan Association for International Health in Nagasaki, Japan.

In line with the theme of the conference, that is “The questions from the field – the discrepancy between the theory and reality –“, the chief advisor presented activities of GLO+UHC Phase 2 and shared experiences and lessons learnt that the project has gained especially through the activities for output 2 and 3, i.e. to support other countries’ UHC achievement based on Thailand-Japan partnership on UHC (output 2), and to disseminate the practical implementations and lessons learnt identified from the activities and promote UHC at a global level (output 3).

Rich experience and various lessons learnt from the partnership between Thailand and Japan captured the audience’s interest in the UHC session of the conference and helped to have an active discussion with the Japanese researchers.

The knowledge and suggestions shared at the conference will surely promote the activities of GLO+UHC Phase 2. We are looking forward to further collaboration with various parties to promote the UHC movement.

20/02/2023

Side Meeting of Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) 2023 – Scale up the health professional development to protect health from climate change
Date: 24 January 2023

【日本語はこちら：https://www.jica.go.jp/project/thailand/033/news/20230124.html】
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The project organized a side meeting of the Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) 2023, which title was “Scale-up the health professional development to protect health from climate change” in a hybrid format. The side meeting was hosted by the project (Ministry of Public Health (MOPH), National Health Security Office (NHSO), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)), and the National Health Professional Education Foundation (NHPE).

Climate change is one of the biggest health threats in the 21st century, that causes climate-related disasters, such as heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes, extreme rainfall, flooding, sea-level rise, etc. These climate-related disasters lead to climate-sensitive health risks, e.g., zoonoses, food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, injury, heat-related illness, respiratory illness, mental health issues, etc. Though many countries have made a great effort to the realization of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as one of the targets of Sustainable Development Goals, the climate crisis could threaten the achievement of UHC by way of damaging existing healthcare infrastructure, hampering access to healthcare services, etc.

Health workforce is a core part of the healthcare system and serves for the delivery of healthcare services. Health workforce needs to deal with health harms caused by climate change and climate-related disasters. However, according to “2021 WHO HEALTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE GLOBAL SURVEY REPORT”, only 40% of countries reported training in climate change and health has been conducted in the last two years. Therefore, health professional development needs to be evolved and scaled up in a way of developing capacity for climate change and health.

The objectives of the side meeting were; To review the impact of climate change on health and the current situation of health professional development in the context of climate change and health; To share the experience and good practices that enabled healthcare workers to prepare for health risks of population and/or system caused by climate change.

The side meeting consisted of 3 sessions. In session 1, titled “WHO strategy on climate change, health and health workforce”, Dr. Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum from WHO HQ and Dr. Masahiro Zakoji from WPRO, WHO, gave presentations that covered the situation and strategy of climate change, health and health workforce.

In session 2, under the title of “Good practice to prepare health workforce for climate change”,
three speakers, namely Dr. Renzo R. Guinto from St. Luke's Medical Center College of Medicine, Philippines, Mr. Shuichi Ikeda from JICA Project for Strengthening the ASEAN Regional Capacity on Disaster Health Management, Thailand, and Dr. Payoungsak Kittikul from Chevron USA, California, USA, talked about their good practice in their field to respond with climate change.

In session 3, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Prasobsri Ungthavorn, who was the chair of the side meeting and NHSO board member, moderated the panel discussion, which theme was “Moving forward to scale-up the health professional development”. Mr. Nontakorn Siriwattanasatorn, from the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations Thailand, joined the panel discussion with the speakers in sessions 1 and 2 as a panelist. The panelists and participants of the side meeting had an active discussion on the essentials, challenges, and prospects of how to prepare the health workforce for climate change and health and deepened their understanding.

The project would be pleased if the side meeting could help to promote countermeasures against climate change in public health.

We would like to thank all the participants, panelists and organizers for joining and supporting this side meeting. We also would like to express our sincere gratitude to the PMAC secretariat for providing us with the opportunity to connect with people from all over the world.

13/02/2023

Site visit to Phitsanulok Province
23 September 2022
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The GLO+UHC Project participated in a site visit and exchange of views organized by the National Health Professional Education Foundation (NHPE) to understand Interprofessional education (IPE) initiatives being implemented in Phitsanulok Province on 23rd September 2022.

As part of the site visits in the morning, we visited three homes of elderly people where students had intervened in the IPE curriculum. Students from the nursing and public health faculties of the Boromarajonani Phitsanulok Nursing College and students from the engineering faculties of other universities in the province worked together to get an overall picture of the elderly and caregiver, including the situation of the target elderly themselves, the burden on their families to care for them and their housing environment. They showed how they have created care products after trial and error, that improve the quality of life for the elderly and caregivers. By visiting actual sites, we were able to hear from the people involved how the care equipment produced in the IPE curriculum has actually been used by caregivers and the elderly and how their lives have been improved. We reconfirmed that the IPE contributes to better care and healthcare provision, not only for the students' learning, but also for the elderly and caregivers. We also learned about the characteristics of IPE in Thailand. By working together with engineering students who are not in the medical field, they are able to view the subject from a new perspective, which leads to better innovations.

In the afternoon, we moved to Boromarajonani Phitsanulok Nursing College to participate in an opinion exchange meeting among faculty members and students involved in IPE curriculum at Boromarajonani nursing colleges in and outside the province, as well as doctors and pharmacists at hospitals. From the standpoints and roles of all parties involved, the current situation, issues and future prospects regarding IPE education were presented and actively discussed, while the GLO+UHC project presented an overview of project activities related to IPE and the direction of future collaboration and cooperation.

Through this visit, we were able to learn not only the theory but also the practice of IPE in the field, which will be useful for planning and managing future IPE activities.