National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Japan
Bureau of International Health Cooperation

08

Technical Report
March, 2015

Health System Strengthening andDisease and Target-speciﬁc Programmesin Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic
and Viet Nam:

Towards Better Harmonisation

National Center for
Global Health and Medicine
Bureau of International Health Cooperation, Japan

ISBN 978-4-909675-23-1

National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Japan
Bureau of International Health Cooperation

Techinical Report vol.

08

March, 2015

Health System Strengthening andDisease and Target-specific Programmesin Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic
and Viet Nam:

Towards Better Harmonisation

WHO Collaborating Centre
for Health Systems Research

Disclaimer
This summary report entitled “Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes in Cambodia,
Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam: Towards Better Harmonization” is published by the National Center for
Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Japan, which is a WHO Collaborating Centre; it is not a publication of the World
Health Organization. The NCGM is responsible for the views expressed in this summary report, and the views do notnecessarily represent the decisions or policies of the World Health Organization.
©NCGM 2015
All rights reserved. Reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product for public health,educational and other non-commercial purposes is authorised without any written permission from the copyrightholder provided the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction of material in this information product for resale andother commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission from the copyright holder.

Executive summary

Executive summary

In the past decade, a common understanding among actors in global health was that healthsystems strengthening (HSS) was the lynchpin for the success and sustainability of various
health programmes, particularly those implemented in resource-poor settings.
The National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Japan has been a WHO
Collaborating Centre (WCC) for Health Systems Research since 2009. This document
summarises the findings of the assessments and missions the Center conducted in
Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and Viet Nam during thecontract period of 2009-2013, focusing on the relationship between HSS and disease andtarget-specific programmes, i.e. Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI); control ofHIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria; and maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH).
The HSS concept has evolved over time. In 2007, the WHO presented a single HSS
framework with six building blocks, namely:
1. Service delivery;
2. Health workforce;
3. Information;
4. Medical products, vaccines and technologies;
5. Financing; and6. Leadership and governance.
Current global and regional strategies for EPI, HIV, TB, malaria and MNCH all include
coordination with other programmes, as well as harmonisation with HSS as their corecomponent. Global HSS support has been spearheaded by the Global Alliance for Vaccines
and Immunization (GAVI), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM),the Health System Funding Platform and the International Health Partnership (IHP+).
In observing the six building blocks of health systems from the perspective of disease andtarget-specific programmes in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam, the following notablefindings were observed:① Health service delivery: Hard-to-reach populations and areas are generally prevalentin Lao PDR, whereas they were specifically defined in Viet Nam (e.g. migration sites).
While good collaboration between public health systems and community organizations
was observed in Viet Nam and Lao PDR, a lack of service integration still creates missed
opportunities, particularly at the community level in Lao PDR.
② Health workforce: A shortage of skilled health staff is a common system-wide barrier
in all three countries. The human resources shortage was particularly illustrated whenTechnical Report vol.08

3

new equipment, commodities and techniques were introduced. Disease and targetspecific programmes provided annual training for new employees and refresher training
opportunities. GAVI and GFATM created additional training opportunities through their HSS
support.
③ Health information system (HIS): HIS integration often faced difficulties. In Cambodia, theMinistry of Health (MOH) and partners tried to centralise HIS in the late 1990s. Insufficient
central ability to operate the system, however, caused reporting delays in the centralised
system. To overcome this new bottleneck, programmes had to maintain parallel reporting
systems.
④ Medical products, vaccines and technologies: Procurement, supplies and logistics often
posed a system-wide barrier for disease and target-specific programmes. The integration oflogistics systems was adopted step-by-step, e.g. in southern Lao PDR. Cambodia experienced
the negative side of the integrated system, particularly with the system developed for theCentral Medical Stores. Limited central capacity caused a shortage of drug supplies, forcing
the programmes to revitalise their vertical and separate storage and logistics.
⑤ Health system financing: A reverse pyramid budget allocation with disproportionally limited
allocation to the community level created a pronounced shortage in local operational costs.
Results-based financing (RBF) was particularly common in Cambodia, but also seen in Viet
Nam. Though the RBF contributed to reallocating budget to local levels, some negative
impacts were also reported. These included difficulty in motivating health personnel without
RBF once it has been introduced, and reduced incentives to resolve the chronic issue ofdelayed and insufficient national budget allocation to local levels.
⑥ Leadership and governance: The importance of national political commitment in
implementing health programmes was especially highlighted in Viet Nam. Coordinatingand harmonising different disease and target-specific programmes and different external
assistance mechanisms was an important aspect of the leadership and governance functionof the health systems.
HSS contributed, and can further contribute, to disease and target-specific health programmes inthree main areas:
1. Streamlining sector planning and budget allocation;
2. Coordinating and harmonising programmes and players; and3. Managing sector-common functions, i.e. health sector human resource development (HRD),
HIS, supply chain management (SCM) and health social security.

4 Technical Report vol.08

Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

Executive summary

Disease and target-specific programmes, conversely, contributed, and can continue tocontribute, to HSS in two ways:
1.
Resource and opportunity creation for HSS; and2.
Ensuring high service coverage with community penetration.
HSS and the disease and target-specific programmes are inseparable. Both are integral partsof a comprehensive health system.
The assessments also identified the following three challenges that need to be to overcome
in order for HSS to better contribute to disease and target-specific programmes and other
health interventions:
1. Lack of a clear strategy and action tools for programme harmonisation;
2. Lack of national capacity to maintain coordinated HIS and SCM; and3. Uncoordinated deployment of human, material and financial resources.
Considering the path towards better harmonisation between HSS and disease and targetspecific programmes, the following are areas where new and innovative efforts are needed:
1. In the move towards a single national health plan, the disease and target-specificprogrammes need to make efforts to align themselves with sector-wide planning as has
been pursued in Lao PDR and Cambodia.
2. The service delivery models of the existing disease and target-specific programmes
should be transferred to other health programmes which lack established structuresand functions (e.g. screening and treating non-communicable diseases).
3. In the face of expanding non out-of-pocket, pooled health financing schemes – such associal insurance, health equity funds and payment exemptions to attain universal healthcoverage (UHC) – financing of disease and target-specific programmes and HSS need tobe appropriately positioned in the overall health financing design.
4. Despite the fact that global and regional strategies for EPI, HIV, TB, malaria and MNCH
all advocate harmonisation with HSS, harmonisation alone does not ensure thatthe foundations of health systems (such as policies and regulations, organizational
structures and both client and service provider incentive) are strengthened. Aside fromsupport activities to improve health service delivery, long-term strengthening of thefoundation of health systems need to be distinctly programmed and funded.
In order to balance short-term programme demands and mid- to long-term health systems
requirements, disease and target-specific programmes need to share mid- to long-term
health systems development perspectives.

Technical Report vol.08

5

Table of contents

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

03
07
09

1. Preface

13

2. Relation between HSS and disease and target-specificprogrammes in the global context

15

2-1. HSS trends in the global health context

15

2-2. Disease and target-specific programmes: Current status
and interface with HSS

16

Executive summary
Abbreviations and acronyms

2-2-1. Expanded Programme on Immunization17

2-2-2. HIV prevention, care and support

17

2-2-3. Tuberculosis control

182-2-4. Malaria control

182-2-5. Maternal, neonatal and child health192-3. GFATM, GAVI, IHP+ and HSFP supports to HSS

20

3. Data collection

22

4. Overview of health systems in subject countries

23

4-1. Cambodia

244-2. Lao PDR

264-3. Viet Nam

28

5. Findings: Status of six building blocks of health systems observed
from the perspective of disease and target-specific programmes

6 Technical Report vol.08

31

5-1. Health service delivery

32

5-2. Health workforce

33

5-3. Health information systems

34

5-4. Medical products, vaccines and technologies

34

5-5. Health systems financing

35

5-6. Leadership and governance36

6. Analysis 1:
How has HSS contributed, and can further contribute to, disease
and target-specific programmes?

38

7. Analysis 2:
How have disease and target-specific programmes contributed,
and can further contribute, to HSS?

42

8. Analysis 3:
Relation models between HSS and disease and target-specificprogrammes – How can both contribute to sustainable healthsystems?

43

9. Conclusions and the way forward

46

Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

Abbreviations and acronyms

Abbreviations and acronyms

ACT
AIDS
ANC
ART
CHCs
CHWs
CMS
DOTS
EPI
GAVI
GFATM
GHI
GVAP
HC
HIS
HIV
HRD
HSDP
HSFP
HSP
HSS
IHP+
IRS
JANS
JICA
Lao PDR
LLINs
MDGs
MNCH
MOH
NCDs
NCGM
NFM
NGO
Norad
PHC

Artemisinin-based combination therapies
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Antenatal care
Anti-retroviral therapy
Commune (sub-district) health centres (Viet Nam)
Commune (sub-district) health workers (Viet Nam)
Central Medical Stores (Cambodia)
Directly observed treatment, short-course
Expanded Program on Immunization
Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Global Health Initiatives
Global Vaccine Action Plan
Health centre
Health information system
Human immunodeficiency virus
Human resource development
Health Sector Development Plan (Lao PDR, Viet Nam)
Health Systems Funding Platform
Health Strategic Plan (Cambodia)
Health systems strengthening
International Health Partnership
Indoor residual spraying
Joint Assessment of National Health Strategies and Plans (for IHP+)
Japan International Cooperation Agency
Lao People’s Democratic RepublicLong lasting insecticidal nets
Millennium Development Goals
Maternal, neonatal and child health
Ministry of HealthNon-communicable diseases
National Center for Global Health and Medicine, JapanNew Funding Model
Non-governmental organization
Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
Primary health careTechnical Report vol.08

7Abbreviations and acronyms

RBF
RBM
RMNCH
SCM
SCWMF
SDG
SOA
SWC
SWiM
TB
UHC
UNTAC
VHWs
WCC
WHO
WPR

8 Technical Report vol.08

Results-based financing
Roll Back Malaria Partnership
Reproductive, maternal, newborn and child healthSupply chain management
Sector Common Work Plan and Monitoring Framework
Service Delivery Grant
Special Operating Agency (Cambodia)
Sector Wide Coordination (Lao PDR)
Sector Wide Management (Cambodia)
Tuberculosis
Universal health coverage
United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
Village health workers
WHO Collaborating Centre
World Health Organization
Western Pacific Region

Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific ProgrammesAcknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The authors in the Bureau of International Medical Cooperation (BIMC), National Center
for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Japan gratefully acknowledge the kind support
provided by regional and country-based WHO officers in implementing assessments andresearch on the relationship between health systems strengthening and disease and targetspecific health programmes. Special thanks to the following officers: Mr. Sjoerd Postma, Dr.
Momoe Takeuchi, Dr. Kenichiro Taneda, Dr. Hendrik Bekedam, Dr. Yoshihiro Takashima, Dr.
Kim Fox, Dr. Yu Dongbao, Dr. Zhao Pengfei, Dr. Jun Nakagawa, Dr. Nobuyuki Nishikiori, Dr.
Hiromi Obara, Dr. Howard Sobel, Ms. Ivette Ambrosio and Mrs. Mary Ann Gamilla.
The authors also wish to express their thanks to public health officials in Cambodia, Lao
PDR and Viet Nam who kindly collaborated with them in conducting the assessments andresearch.
We gratefully acknowledge the funding support of the WHO Regional Office for the Western
Pacific to implement the assessments and missions covered in this summary report. A partof the assessments and research was financed by the following NCGM international medical
cooperation research and development grants:• Research on international collaboration towards effective outbreak responses (Code18C2); and• Research on factors and process of recent expansion of infectious diseases in Nepal andViet Nam (Code 24D5).
The authors included the following staff members of the BIMC-NCGM, Japan (in alphabeticalorder): Hidechika Akashi, MD, MPH, PhD; Noriko Fujita, MD, PhD; Mayumi Hashimoto, RN,
NMW, MSN; Masanori Hirayama, MD, PhD; Yasuyo Matsumoto, MD, PhD; Hitoshi Murakami
MD, MPH, PhD; Shinichiro Noda, MD, MPH; and Hiroshi Ohara, MD, PhD.

Technical Report vol.08

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10 Technical Report vol.08 Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

Health System Strengthening andDisease and Target-specific Programmesin Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic andViet Nam:

Towards Better Harmonisation

12 Technical Report vol.08

Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

1. Preface

1.

Preface

For the past decade, a common understanding shared among actors in global health has been that
health systems strengthening (HSS) is the lynchpin for the success and sustainability of different healthprogrammes, particularly those implemented in resource-poor settings. It is increasingly recognisedthat disease and target-specific health programmes such as malaria control and immunization, thoughextensive in coverage and effective, need to align with HSS in order for them to be sustainable.
The National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM), Japan was re-designated as a WHO
Collaborating Centre (WCC) for Health Systems Research and entered into a contract with the WHO
Regional Office for the Western Pacific Division of Health Services Development on 28 July 2009. For the
four-year contract period, the Center undertook the following:
1. Conduct assessments of the impacts of HSS;
2. Conduct assessments of synergies between HSS and primary health care (PHC);
3. Participate in missions to design a training framework by identifying the competencies and training
needs of health care providers;
4. Participate in missions analysing synergies between HSS and disease-specific programmes (mainly
infectious disease control).
In this report, the term “disease and target-specific programmes” is used to represent the Expanded
Programme on Immunization (EPI), prevention and care/support of human immunodeficiency virus(HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), tuberculosis (TB) control, malaria control,and maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH). These programmes provide the most functional
health care delivery in the context of primary health care, typically with vertical programme structuresand budgeting vis-à-vis donor support in developing countries including Cambodia, the Lao People’s
Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) and Viet Nam.
This document summarises the findings of the assessments and missions conducted by the NCGM as the
WCC for Health Systems Research and the Center’s own related research undertaken in the same period
in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam, three of the priority countries in the Western Pacific Region (WPR),
focusing on the relationship between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes.
The report first reviews the relationship between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes in the
global context, and then looks at the status of the health systems in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Namin terms of the six building blocks of health systems (service delivery; health workforce; information;
medical products, vaccines and technologies; financing; and leadership and governance). Based on thefindings of assessments and research, the report elaborates the status of each of the building blocks inthese countries from the perspective of different disease and target-specific programmes.
Technical Report vol.08

13

The following sections analyse how HSS has contributed, and can continue to contribute, to disease andtarget-specific programmes, and vice versa, in these countries. It then provides relationship models tointerpret these dynamic interactions and interdependence. Last, the document presents conclusions anda potential way forward to better harmonise HSS and the disease and target-specific programmes.

14 Technical Report vol.08

Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programme2. Relation between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes in the global context

2.
		Relation between HSS and disease and target-specificprogrammes in the global context

This section looks first at HSS trends in the global health context, then reviews the status of disease andtarget-specific programmes and their interface with HSS.
As tangible driving forces of the harmonisation between HSS and the disease and target-specificprogrammes, HSS support schemes of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM),the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the Health System Funding Platform (HSFP)and the International Health Partnership (IHP+) are outlined.

2-1. HSS trends in the global health context
1.
During the 1990s, under the broad heading of health sector reform, discussions on healthsystems mainly focused on the reorganisation of central ministries and civil services, decentralization,interface with the private sector, broadening health financing options (including user fees) and fostering
managed market competition. The World Bank played a significant role in facilitating the reform1.
The 2000 World Health Report, Health Systems: Improving Performance set the stage for health systems
to be a major item on the global health agenda in the 21st century2. The report described healthsystems in terms of three objectives: health, responsiveness to people’s non-medical expectations, andfair financial contributions. Health systems were also defined in terms of implementing four functions:stewardship, resource creation (investment and training), service delivery, and financing.
In 2007, WHO presented a single HSS framework with six building blocks3 :1. Service delivery;
2. Health workforce;
3. Information;
4. Medical products, vaccines and technologies;
5. Financing; and6. Leadership and governance.
The 2008 World Health Report highlighted the importance of primary health care, a concept defined by the
1978 Alma-Ata Declaration4. The emphasis was placed on universal coverage supported by people-centred
1.
2.
3.
4.

World Bank. World Development Report 1987. Washington DC: World Bank, 1987.
World Bank. World Development Report 1993-Investing in health. Washington DC: World Bank, 1993.
WHO. The World Health Report 2000, Health systems: improving performance. Geneva: WHO, 2000.
WHO. Everybody’s business-strengthening health systems to improve health outcomes: WHO’s framework for action.
Geneva: WHO, 2007.
WHO. The World Health Report 2008: Primary Health Care-Now more than ever. Geneva: WHO, 2008.

Technical Report vol.08

15

service delivery. Strengthening health leadership and mainstreaming health within policies in all sectors
were also stressed as necessary reforms for primary health care to adapt to 21st century realities. In
the WPR, the regional strategy for health systems is largely based on the updated primary health care
concept5. Leadership and management strengthening were emphasised as important actions to upgrade
health systems.

2-2. Disease and target-specific programmes: Current status and interface with HSS
Current global and regional strategies for different disease and target-specific programmes covered inthis document all include coordination with other programmes as well as harmonisation with, or evencontributions to, HSS as their core components.
Table 1:

Summary of how current global and regional strategies for disease and target-specificprogrammes embrace health systems strengthening

Programmes
EPI

HIV

Global/regional strategy documents
Global Immunization Vision andStrategy (GIVS)/
Global Vaccine Action Plan
A New Health Sector Agenda for
HIV/AIDS

•
•
•
•
•

TB

MALARIA

Global Malaria Action Plan

MNCH

Global Strategy for Women’s andChildren’s Health

EPI
HIV
TB
MNCH
5.

Regional Strategy for Stop
Tuberculosis in the Western Pacific2011-2015

Expanded Programme on Immunization
Human immunodeficiency virus
Tuberculosis
Maternal, neonatal and child health

•

•
•

IMCI
HRD
HSS

HSS aspects in global/regional strategies
To integrate immunization in the health system context
To integrate immunization with deworming, IMCI andother primary health care programmes
To integrate HIV programme with TB and MNCH
HIV programme to contribute more to HSS, including
health HRD, pharmaceutical and other materials logistics
and health information
To position the HSS agenda at the centre of the TB
control strategy
To share a common ground with HSS in universal healthcoverage, social and financial protection of vulnerable
and marginalised populations, human resources,
private sector regulation and collaboration with otherprogrammes
To work together with HSS in the scaling-up phase ofmalaria control to attain universal coverage and sustain
the control
All five action areas – country-led health plans,
integrated package of essential services, integrated care,
HSS and health workforce capacity building – have direct
HSS implications
Integrated management of childhood illnesses
Human resource development
Health systems strengthening

WHO/WPRO. Western Pacific Regional Strategy for Health Systems Based on the Values of Primary Health Care. Manila:
Regional Office for the Western Pacific, WHO, 2010.

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2. Relation between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes in the global context

2-2-1. Expanded Programme on Immunization
The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) was established in the 1970s and has achieved themost extensive service coverage globally6. An iconic achievement of the Programme was the global
eradication of smallpox in 1980. Currently, the polio eradication programme is primarily focusing on thethree remaining endemic countries: Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan7.
Published jointly by WHO and UNICEF in 2005, the Global Immunization Vision and Strategy strategically
positioned EPI in a changing world8. One of four strategy areas is the integration of immunization into
the health systems context. Integrating interventions (e.g. integrating immunization with deworming andmanagement of childhood illnesses) is the key strategy outlined.
The Decade of Vaccines, in line with requests made in World Health Assembly resolution 61.15 on the
global immunization strategy and with notable support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wasdeclared to ensure discovery, development and delivery of lifesaving vaccines globally. Its framework
document, the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP), was endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2012.9
In its six guiding principles, a strong immunization system as part of broader health systems and close
coordination with other PHC programmes are stressed.

2-2-2. HIV prevention, care and support
Since 1981, over 25 million people worldwide have died of AIDS. HIV remains a long-term global issue
with a generally declining, but continuing incidence of new infections.10 Nevertheless, the programme
to fight HIV/AIDS realised a remarkable expansion of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) – even among lowand middle-income countries – that transformed the infection from a terminal illness to a chronic
condition. ART spearheaded health care delivery on the basis of continuous follow-up and medication,
which may open a potential window of opportunity to treat other chronic communicable or even noncommunicable diseases in such countries.
In 2011, WHO proposed a new health sector agenda for HIV/AIDS. The agenda put particular emphasison the prevention of HIV infection, but it also included strategic directions to more dynamicallyWHO. World Health Statistics 2012. Geneva: WHO, 2012.
Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Polio's last stand? Geneva: Global Polio Eradication
Initiative, 2012.
8. WHO/UNICEF. GIVS: Global Immunization Vision and Strategy 2006-2015. Geneva/New York: WHO/UNICEF, 2005.
9. WHO. Global Vaccine Action Plan 2011-2020. Geneva: WHO, 2013.
10. UNAIDS. UNAIDS Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic 2012. Geneva: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, 2012.

6.
7.

Technical Report vol.08

17harmonise the HIV programme with HSS. The new directions advocate that the HIV programme beeffectively integrated with other health programmes such as TB control and MNCH. The HIV programmeis also expected to contribute more to HSS, including health HRD, pharmaceutical and other supply chain
management (SCM) and health information systems (HIS).

2-2-3. Tuberculosis control
Since its establishment in 1999, the Special Project to Stop TB (tuberculosis) has made remarkableprogress in global TB control, particularly through the application of DOTS (directly observed treatment,
short-course). In the WPR, Cambodia, China, the Philippines and Viet Nam have 93% of the regional caseload.
The “Regional Strategy to Stop Tuberculosis in the Western Pacific 2011-2015” set forth three guiding
principles including the positioning of the HSS agenda at the centre of the TB control strategy11. The
Programme shares common ground with HSS, mainly in universal health coverage, social and financial
protection of vulnerable and marginalised populations, human resources, private sector regulation andcollaboration with other programmes. Equity is a key value that guides TB control because the disease
mainly affects the poor and the deprived. The pursuit of equity is a dimension where the Stop TB
Programme shares a common value with HSS.

2-2-4. Malaria control
Over the past decades, there has been substantial progress in malaria control. After the Global Malaria
Eradication Programme, which ran from 1955-69, malaria was largely overlooked until the Roll Back
Malaria Partnership (RBM) was launched in 1998 as the disease made a dramatic comeback and manyfirst line drugs were failing. The primary prevention tools are long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs),
indoor residual spraying (IRS) and intermittent preventive treatment for pregnant women (IPTp). The
rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) improved diagnosis andtreatment. IRS and IPTp are not widely applied in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam.
The Global Malaria Action Plan set forth by the RBM Partnership defines two stages of malaria control:
1. Scaling-up of preventive and therapeutic interventions; and2. Sustaining control over time.12
11. WHO/WPRO. Regional Strategy to Stop Tuberculosis in the Western Pacific 2011-2015: Reaching out to all. Manila: Regional
Office for the Western Pacific, WHO, 2011.
12. Roll Back Malaria. Global Malaria Action Plan: For a malaria-free world. Geneva: Roll Back Malaria Partnership, 2008.

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2. Relation between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes in the global context

HSS is considered a critical part of both stages: the scaling-up of malaria control to attain universal
coverage and sustaining the scaled-up malaria control, especially preventive measures, to avoid aresurgence of the disease.

2-2-5. Maternal, neonatal and child healthMaternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) is not disease specific, but rather is a target-specificinitiative comprising public health and clinical programmes. It typically includes family planning andmaternal/child nutrition programmes (including micronutrient supplements for both mothers andchildren and child growth monitoring with or without nutritional supplementation) with a strong verticalstructure and planning.
Perinatal care constitutes a core of both maternal and neonatal care requiring rigorous clinical capacity
to implement. It forms a continuum of care covering the pre-, peri- and post-natal periods targeting
mothers and children in combination with antenatal, postnatal and infant care. In Lao PDR, EPI is
considered part of MNCH and falls under the auspices of the National Maternal and Child Health Centre.
Among the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), three are directly related to health, with two
directly concerning MNCH.13 One Goal is to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between
1990 and 2015. The other is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters and achieve
universal access to reproductive health over the same period. Despite remarkable progress in the MNCH
field in past decades, maternal health goals are considered to be the most difficult MDGs to achieve.
In 2010, the United Nations Secretary-General issued the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s
Health.14 It advocates action in five areas:
1. Country-led health plans;
2. A comprehensive, integrated package of essential interventions and services;
3. Integrated care;
4. HSS; and5. Health workforce capacity building.
All of these points have direct HSS implications.

13. United Nations. “United Nations Millennium Declaration (UN General Assembly Resolution 55/2)”. New York: United
Nations, 2000.
14. Ki-moon B (UN Secretary General). Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. New York: United Nations, 2010.

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2-3. GFATM, GAVI, IHP+ and HSFP supports to HSS
Various Global Health Initiatives (GHI) that focus mainly on infectious diseases spearheaded global HSS
support based on public-private partnerships in the past decade. These initiatives include GAVI, GFATM,
IHP+ and HSFP.
GAVI committed US$ 500 million for HSS between 2006 and 2010 in:
1. Health workforce support targeting those engaged in immunization and other health services;
2. Drugs, equipment, infrastructure and supplies for PHC; and3. Organization, monitoring, and management of health services.
Preceding this support, GAVI, with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation(Norad), assessed system-wide barriers, mainly focusing on those that hindered the expansion of
immunization coverage.15
Similarly, GFATM supported HSS by providing funds to allow countries to respond to health systemweaknesses, either through a specific programme or disease effort, or through a cross-cutting approach
benefiting the control efforts of more than one target diseases (i.e. HIV, TB and malaria). Under the
Fund’s New Funding Model (NFM) that replaces the traditional rounds-based funding, countries are stillencouraged to allocate a portion of supports for cross-cutting HSS needs. In addition, the inclusion of
reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) in the concept notes (request documents) is
guided.16
IHP+ was launched in 2007 to accelerate progress on the health MDGs. It includes over 50 developing
country partners, bilateral donors and international development agencies. These partners share thegoals and approach of IHP+ by being signatories to the Global Compact, the founding document of IHP+.
IHP+ mainly supports the development of comprehensive national health plans.

15. Hsiao W., and B. Siadat. “In search of a common framework for health systems strengthening”. Paper presented at a World
Bank, GAVI, Global Fund meeting on health systems strengthening. Washington DC: 25-27; 2009.
GAVI/Norad. Alleviating System Wide Barriers to Immunization: Issues and Conclusions from the Second GAVI Consultation
with Country Representatives and Global Partners. Oslo: GAVI/Norad, 2004.
16. WHO. WHO Technical Guidance Note: Strengthening the inclusion of reproductive, maternal, newborn and child (RMNCH)
health in concept notes to the Global Fund. Geneva: WHO, 2014.
GFATM. Information Note on Health Systems Strengthening for Global Fund Applicants. Geneva: Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria, 2014.

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Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

2. Relation between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes in the global context

Facilitated by WHO, HSFP was established in 2009, bringing together GAVI, GFATM and the WB, andlinking their support to developing countries' national health plans. They provide a joint platform for HSS
that aims at:
1. One comprehensive health plan that integrates both domestic funding and international aid;
2. One joint assessment of the national health strategy;
3. One budget; and4. One tracking system for funds.
The relationship between IHP+ and HSFP is rather complex. The key development partners forming HSFP(GAVI, GFATM and WB) are also the IHP+ partners, along with other key UN agencies such as WHO and
UNICEF, and with larger involvement from country governments and civil society.
The two initiatives are closely related to each other, but with some notable differences. HSFP is moreglobally oriented, whereas IHP+ is more country oriented.17 While IHP+ assesses sector strategies,
planning and budgeting and the status of health human resources using the Joint Assessment of National
Strategy (JANS), HSFP assesses the financial management capacity and systems supporting financialtransactions18 through its financial management assessment scheme.
As of November 2010, there was a discussion between GFATM and GAVI regarding whether todiscontinue separate financing proposals under IHP+ and HSFP,19 but they continued to coexist as of
September 2013.

17. Hill P.S., et al. “The Health System Funding Platform: Is this where we thought we were going?” Globalization and Health,
2011; 7: 16.
18. HSFP. Harmonization and simplification of Financial Management. Geneva: Health Systems Funding Platform, 2010.
19. Ibid.

Technical Report vol.08

21

3. Data collection

3.

Data collection

Table 2 summarises the assessment missions NCGM conducted as the WCC for Health Systems Researchduring the 2009-2013 contract period. The assessments used the disease and target-specific programmes
mentioned above to trace health systems in the subject countries through document reviews and key
informant interviews with health officers at different levels of the public health systems, programme
officers from external assistance agencies and country-based WHO staff.
Table 2:
		

List of assessment missions the NCGM conducted during the 2009-2013 contract period
in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam

Date

Country

Oct 2009

Cambodia

Oct 2009

Viet Nam

Jan-Feb 2011

Lao PDR

Focus
Assessment of interface between TB control/EPI and general healthsystem in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap province
Assessment of interface between malaria control/EPI and general
health system in Thanh Hoa and Dien Bien provinces
Assessment of interface between disease specific programmes
and general health system in Vientiane Capital, Luang Prabang andChampassack province

NCGM Staff
N. Fujita
Y. Matsumoto
H. Ohara
Y. Matsumoto
S. NodaTable 3 summarises HSS-related research and activities the NCGM conducted with its own fundingin 2009-2013. The findings of this research are also featured, where appropriate, in the findings andanalyses.
Table 3:
Research and activities with NCGM’s own grant and arrangement during 2009-2012
		
concerning HSS and disease and target-specific programmes in Cambodia, Lao PDR and		Viet Nam
Date

Country

Jan 2009

Lao PDRFeb 2009

Cambodia
Lao PDR,

March 2009

Cambodia,
Thailand

Focus
Assessment of synergies and costs of MCH services from prenatal toearly childhood period in Sekong province
Assessment of the impacts of GAVI-HSS in Kompong Cham provinceWorkshop on disease-specific programmes and health systems
strengthening at Japan Association on International Health

Programme
22 Technical Report vol.08 Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

NCGM Staff
H. Murakami
M. Nagai
H. Ohara
M. Nagai
H. Murakami
H. Murakami
et al4. Overview of health systems in subject countries

4.

Overview of health systems in subject countries

This section provides an overview of the status of health systems in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam on
the basis of the missions and research conducted by the NCGM from 2009-2013, its programme support
experiences in these countries and notable existing reference materials including policy documents ofthe countries.
Table 4:

Summary of key characteristics of health systems in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam
Cambodia•

Health Service
Delivery••
Health workforce•(2010)

Health systemfinancing

Leadership andgovernance
CHCs
HIS
CMS

External support agencies •play a large part
Contracting as a common
modality to relate external •agencies with sector plan

Mountainous terrain
and ethnic diversity posenotable barriers
Highly dependent oncommunity outreachDoctors: 2.3/10,000 pop
Nurses and midwives:
7.9/10,000 pop.

Doctors: 2.7/10,000 pop.
Nurses and midwives:
9.7/10,000 pop.

••

Viet Nam••

Strong vertical programmes
Well-functioning CHCs and
VHWs

•
•

Doctors: 12.2/10,000 pop.
Nurses and midwives:
10.1/10,000 pop.

•

Integrated HIS vigorously•
pursued in the past faced amajor challenge of national•
capacity•
Unstandardised andincomplete records/reports•
Lack of vital registration

Meticulous recording andreporting
Vertical and parallelreporting systems•

Integrated logistics system •with CMS system faced amajor challenge of national •capacity

Integrated logistics pursued•
since 2009
Supply shortage notable insome programmes

A large part of essential
medicines and vaccines
produced in-country•

External supports still vital •to health financing
Out-of-pocket payment•
occupied 42% (2009)•
Provinces play a major partin health financing
Out-of-pocket payment•
occupied 51% (2009)

Ensured local publicfinancing for designatednational programmes
Out-of-pocket payment
occupied 58% (2009)

Sector Wide Coordination•(SWC) pursued with•
SCWMF

Strong national ownership
Joined IHP+ in 2010

Health information
systemMedical products,
vaccines andtechnologies

Lao PDR••

Sector Wide Management(SWiM) pursued

Commune health centres
Health information system
Central Medical Stores•

IHP+
International Health Partnership
SCWMF Sector Common Work Plan and Monitoring
Framework
VHWs Village Health Workers

Technical Report vol.08

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4-1. Cambodia
Health service delivery
Given the country’s post-conflict background, health service delivery in Cambodia is highly dependent
on external support agencies and “contracting” has been the basic modality that determines therelationship between the MOH and these agencies. In the contracting, the government tendered
contracts for management of government health services in districts to private bidders, mostlyinternational development partners including NGOs. Contractors were then held responsible forproviding public health and clinical services in line with the Minimum Package of Activities (MPA).20
In the face of a surge of external support, particularly after the multi-party elections led by the United
Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in 1993, contracting was institutionalised in 1996
as part of the Basic Health Services Project. By 2003, contracting covered about 11% of Cambodia’s
population. The approach was then expanded to additional districts.21
There have been two types of contracting, namely contracting-in and contracting-out. Contracting-in
districts were expected to work within the existing government system for the procurement of drugs,
equipment and supplies. Their operating expenses were financed through the government budget in
the same manner as ordinary districts. They were required to use existing MOH personnel. Contractedout districts, in contrast, enjoyed full autonomy. They were allowed to hire and fire staff, could bringin health workers from other parts of the country, and were responsible for their own procurement ofdrugs, supplies and equipment.22
A Special Operating Agency (SOA) scheme launched in 2009 further streamlined the contracting system.
In the SOA scheme, the district health administration is financed by five sources:
1. Government budget;
2. A service delivery grant (SDG) that is basically a pooled fund created out of development
partners’ support;
3. User fees;
4. Health equity fund; and5. Direct financing by development partners.

20. Bloom E., et al. Contracting for Health: Evidence from Cambodia. Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 2006.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid.

24 Technical Report vol.08

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4. Overview of health systems in subject countries

In principle, direct financing by development partners is discouraged, whereas development partners areencouraged to contribute to the SDG. Provincial Health Departments function as a commission, while
districts function as contractors.23 Scaling up health service delivery contracting countrywide through
SOA is the direction set by the 2008-2015 Health Strategic Plan (HSP).24

Health workforce
Health personnel, particularly medical doctors, are in short supply in Cambodia.25 The country had
2.3 doctors and 7.9 nursing and midwifery personnel per 10,000 population in 2010. Health humanresources policy frequently changed, particularly regarding midwifery personnel. Over the past decades,
national policy has focused at one time on quantity and at another on quality of such personnel.

Health information system
While the disease control programmes – such as HIV, TB and malaria – have received more support for
their specific information systems, a comprehensive approach to the improvement of the production,
analysis and use of health related data needs to be further strengthened and developed. Notable
constraints in the HIS include the lack of a major commitment for HIS coordination among stakeholders,
as well as medium- and long-term plans for HIS improvement. The improvement is especially needed toensure the accuracy of demographic data sources through census and vital registration information, andin managing data.26

Medical products, vaccines and technologies
Cambodia has a unified public health sector drugs and commodities procurement and supply system
in which the Central Medical Stores (CMS) play a principal role. The Essential Drug Bureau of the
Department of Drugs and Food in the MOH is responsible for oversight and forecasting and, in
conjunction with the CMS, coordination of the drug supply.27

23. Ibid.
24. MOH, Cambodia. Health Strategic Plan 2008-2015. Phnom Penh: Ministry of Health, 2008.
25. WHO 2012.
26. Veasnakiry L. and S. Sovanratnak. Cambodia Health Information System: Review and Assessment. Phnom Penh: Ministry of
Health, 2007.
27. Hall P.E. and C. Chhuong. Reproductive Health Commodity Security – Country case study: Cambodia. London: HealthResource Centre, Department for International Development, 2006.

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Health system financing
As in the case of Lao PDR, Cambodian health financing is characterised by low absolute and relative
government spending on health and a very high proportion of out-of-pocket payment and donor
funding.28 In 2009,29 out-of-pocket payments by Cambodian health care clients accounted for about 42%
of total health expenditures. Three major pre-payment schemes have been put in place to alleviate theoften catastrophic financial consequences of patients’ out-of-pocket health expenditures:
1. Mandatory health insurance for formal sector employees (administered by the Ministry of Social
Affairs, Veterans and Youth);
2. Community-based health insurance for self-employed and informal sector workers; and3. A health equity fund30 (Cambodia was the first country to introduce the health equity fund in
200031).

Leadership and governance
Health development partners have tried to coordinate their work along the MOH’s Health Strategic Plan
(HSP) under a Sector Wide Management (SWiM) framework adopted in 2000. The SWiM concept is also
reflected in the HSP 2008-2015 as a strategic means to support harmonisation.32

4-2. Lao PDR
Health service delivery
Mountainous terrain, sparsely scattered populations and ethnic diversity represent significant barriers
to health service delivery in Lao PDR. As a result, service delivery at the community level is heavily
dependent on outreach activities in villages. Community health centres and district hospitals are
remarkably underutilised. EPI presents the most regular and extensive service delivery window at thecommunity level. The national health plan looking towards the year 2020 emphasises coordination
between EPI and MNCH, particularly at the community level, to form a core health services package.33
28. P.L. Annear. “Cambodia: Developing a Strategy for Social Health Protection”. In Promoting sustainable strategies to improveaccess to health care in the Asian and Pacific Region. Bangkok: ESCAP, 2009.
29. WHO 2012.
30. Annear 2009.
31. Noirhomme M., et al. “Improving access to hospital care for the poor: comparative analysis of four health equity funds in
Cambodia”. Health Policy & Plan 2007; 2: 246-262.
32. MOH Cambodia 2008.
33. MOH, Lao PDR. Health Strategy up to the Year 2020. Vientiane: Ministry of Health, 2000.

26 Technical Report vol.08

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4. Overview of health systems in subject countries

Health workforce
A shortage of health personnel, particularly medical doctors, is a serious health system-wide barrier in
Lao PDR. The country had 2.7 doctors and 9.7 nursing and midwifery personnel per 10,000 population
as of 2010. These figures are only slightly higher than those of Cambodia.34 A concentration of healthpersonnel in urban areas is, however, more prominent in Lao PDR.

Health information system
Inconsistent and incomplete records and reports of health services are a prevalent problem. Lack of vitalregistration information, including births and deaths, makes it difficult to estimate target populations forhealth services. Despite this, a comprehensive HIS is running, partly integrating information derived fromthe disease and target-specific programmes.

Medical products, vaccines and technologies
Separate logistics systems for EPI, malaria, etc. encouraged the MOH to support an integrated logistics
system to harmonise drug supplies for different health services, particularly since 2009. In principle,
procurement is handled centrally at the national level. In the field, shortages of medicines for publichealth programmes, such as iron and folic acid tablets for antenatal care, are prevalent.

Health system financing
Total health expenditure is still low and depends heavily on household out-of-pocket payments.35 In
2009,36 about 51% of health expenditures in Lao PDR were out-of-pocket payments by health careclients. Additionally, the majority of the health budget is supported by external assistance. Currently,
75% of the domestic health budget excluding external assistance is provided by provinces and districts.37
Provinces are key actors in both financing and delivery of health services.

34. WHO 2012.
35. Ahmed S., et al. “Institutional design and organizational practice for universal coverage in lesser-developed countries:
Challenges facing the Lao PDR”. Soc Sci Med 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.01.019.
36. WHO 2012.
37. Thome J.M., S. Pholsena. “Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Health Financing Reform and Challenges in Expanding theCurrent Social Protection Schemes”. In: Promoting sustainable strategies to improve access to health care in the Asian andPacific Region. Bangkok: ESCAP, 2009.

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In 2012, about 22% of the population of Lao PDR was covered by pre-payment health financing
schemes.38 Four major pre-payment schemes are in place:
1. Mandatory health insurance for civil servants and employees of enterprises with more than 10
employees (administered by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare)
2. Community-based health insurance for self-employed and informal sector workers
3. Health care fund for the poor covering people living below the poverty line
4. Exemption of medical fees for maternal and child health care in selected provinces/districts

Leadership and governance
A Sector Wide Coordination (SWC) mechanism for health aligns and directs the contributions andactivities of development partners in achieving the country’s health objectives. This mechanism wasaccelerated by the adoption of the Vientiane Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2007,39 reflecting thespirit of the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.40 The coordination mechanism operates at threelevels: policy, strategy and technical. A Sector Common Work Plan and Monitoring Framework facilitates
joint planning, monitoring and coordination for health policy and health programme implementation inline with the seventh five-year Health Sector Development Plan (HSDP).41

4-3. Viet Nam
Health service delivery
Viet Nam enjoys strong delivery of key health interventions including the disease-specific initiatives
covered in this document. Programmes such as EPI, malaria control, family planning and micronutrient
supplementation (in particular vitamin A) achieved extensive community-level coverage and rural
penetration with CHCs (commune health centres) and VHWs (village health workers) functioning
effectively. A high degree of utilisation of the CHCs is a notable feature that distinguishes the Vietnamese
health system from those in Lao PDR and Cambodia.

38. Ahmed 2013.
39. Government of Lao PDR/UNDP. Vientiane Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Vientiane: Government of Lao People’s
Democratic Republic/UNDP, 2007.
40. OECD/DAC. The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action. Paris: Development AssistanceCommittee, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2005/2008.
41. MOH, Lao PDR. The 7th Five-year Health Sector Development Plan 2011-2015. Vientiane: Ministry of Health, 2011.

28 Technical Report vol.08

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4. Overview of health systems in subject countries

Health workforce
Viet Nam has a relatively large number of doctors per population (12.2 per 10,000 population as of2010); more than four times that of Lao PDR and Cambodia.42 Indeed, almost half of the CHCs havemedical doctors. In contrast, there are fewer nursing and midwifery personnel than doctors (10.1 per
10,000 population, almost comparable to Cambodia and Lao PDR).43

Health information system
In hospitals and CHCs, service records are meticulously kept in log books and reporting forms. A large
number of log books and reporting forms often overload health staff, particularly commune healthworkers (CHWs).

Medical products, vaccines and technologies
Essential medicines (i.e. anti-malarial drugs) and vaccines are produced domestically. Notably, thecountry is producing most of its EPI vaccines. In the mid-2000s, the country faced drug supply problems,
mainly for the poor, due to increased drug prices in the public sector.44 The issue was vigorously
discussed, even in the National Assembly. Drug prices are still a bottleneck to Viet Nam’s health system,
mainly as a result of inefficient procurement.

Health system financing
Once a programme is designated as national, it is implemented with a high degree of politicalcommitment and often with direct fund transfers from the national to sub-district levels. Other moreroutine activities, such as MNCH, lack explicit budget allocation at the sub-district and village levels inmost places. Results-based financing (RBF) was adopted in EPI in the form of a cash disbursement per
fully immunised child.

42. WHO 2012.
43. WHO 2012.
44. Nguyen A.T., R. Knight, A. Mant, QM Cao, and M. Auton. “Medicine prices, availability, and affordability in Vietnam”.
Southern Med Review 2009; 2(2):2-9.

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Four major pre-payment schemes are in place:
1. Mandatory health insurance for civil servants and staff of corporations (administered by the
Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs)
2. Voluntary health insurance
3. Health care fund for the poor subsidising premiums of mandatory health insurance for the poor,
near-poor and ethnic minorities
4. Exemption of medical fees for those under 6-years-old
As a result of the amendment of the Health Insurance Law in 2014, the voluntary insurance is planned
to be abolished and integrated into the mandatory scheme in coming years. The third scheme was
integrated into the mandatory health insurance scheme in 2008.
As of 2013, the combined coverage reached nearly 70% of the total population. In 2009, 58% of healthexpenditure was still borne by health care clients in Viet Nam in the form of out-of-pocket payments.45

Leadership and governance
Unlike in Lao PDR and Cambodia, health sector-wide planning, particularly in relation to aid effectiveness,has not been vigorously pursued in Viet Nam. Although the country joined IHP+ in 2010 and undertooka Joint Assessment of National Health Strategies and Plans (JANS),46 the health sector largely follows
the HSDP for 2011-201547 as part of the five-year national Socioeconomic Development Strategy48 thatremains within the traditional five-year planning cycle of a socialist country.
The relatively slow process towards sector-wide coordination in line with the sector-wide approach,however, is in part the reflection of the strong national ownership and generally good health outcomes
derived from the existing systems.

45. WHO 2012.
46. Trans V.T., et al. The Independent Assessment of the Process and the Content of the Five Year Health Plan, 2011-15, in
Vietnam. Hanoi: Joint Assessment of National Strategies (JANS) Team, 2011.
47. MOH, Viet Nam. Five-Year Health Sector Development Plan 2011-2015. Hanoi: Ministry of Health, 2010.
48. Government of Viet Nam. Viet Nam’s Socio-economic Development Strategy for the Period of 2011-2020. Hanoi: Governmentof Viet Nam, 2010.

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Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programme

5. Findings: Status of six building blocks of health systems observed
from the perspective of disease and target-specific programmes

5.
Findings: Status of six building blocks of health systems		
observed from the perspective of disease and		target-specific programmesThis section collates the findings of assessments and research to indicate the status of the six building
blocks of health systems as observed from the perspectives of EPI, HIV, TB, malaria and MNCH
programmes in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam.
Table 5:
		Key findings of status of six building blocks of health systems observed through EPI,
HIV, TB, malaria and MNCH programmes in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam

Health systembuilding blocks

Key findings observed through disease- and target specific programmes
1.

Health Service
Delivery

Health workforce(2010)

Health information
systemMedical products,
vaccines andtechnologies

2.
3.

1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
2.
1.
2.
3.
1.

Health systemfinancing

2.
3.
1.

Leadership andgovernance2.
3.

Hard to reach population/areas generally prevalent in Lao PDR, whereas they were
specifically defined in Viet Nam.
Good collaboration between public health system and community organisations wasobserved in Viet Nam and Lao PDR.
Lack of service integration still posed missed opportunities, particularly at the community
level of Lao PDR. The service integration was also considered to reduce administrative
workload.
Shortage of skilled health staff was a common system-wide barrier in all three countries.
The human resources shortage was exemplified particularly when equipment,
commodities and techniques were newly introduced.
Disease and target-specific programmes provided annual programme based training of
new employees and refresher training opportunities.
GAVI and GFATM created additional training opportunities through their HSS supports.
The HIS integration often faced difficulties.
Cambodia vigorously pursued an integrated HIS in the late 1990s, but faced a major
challenge of national capacity to maintain it.
Procurement, supplies and logistics often posed a system-wide barrier to disease-specificprogrammes.
The integration of logistics systems was adopted step-by-step (e.g. in southern Lao PDR.
Cambodia vigorously pursued an integrated logistics system in the late 1990s, but faced amajor challenge of national capacity to maintain it.
A reverse pyramid budget allocation with disproportionally limited allocation tocommunity level was causing a prominent shortage of local operational costs.
Results-based financing (RBF) was particularly common in Cambodia, but also seen inViet Nam.
Though the RBF contributed to reallocate budget to local levels, some negative impacts
were also reported.
Importance of national political commitment in implementing health programmes was
highlighted, particularly in Viet Nam.
Coordinating and harmonising different disease and target-specific programmes was animportant aspect of the leadership and governance function of the health systems.
Related with above, coordinating different external assistances was also an essential
aspect of leadership and governance.

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5-1. Health service delivery
Profiles of hard-to-reach populations and areas differed from one country to another, requiring different
service delivery mechanisms, particularly along the spectrum from facility-based to community-based
services.
In Viet Nam, although overall service coverage was higher than in the other two countries, malaria
control faced a barrier in the form of a very specific hard-to-reach population: migratory workers forming
new endemic areas, especially around new construction sites for development projects.
In contrast, in southern Lao PDR, the majority of the population could not reach health facilities easily.
For example, in Sekong province, only 45% of the population could reach a health facility, indicating thecomparative importance of community-based services. In fact, village outreach was the main means ofservice delivery for MNCH and EPI. Antenatal care (ANC) was often conducted in villages with relatively
high coverage, but with high drop-out rates from the first (ANC1) to the third (ANC3) visit onward.
Immunization marked the highest coverage among all services targeting mothers and children. The
proportion of deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants was at best one-third and postnatal carecoverage was at best 20%, observed in Sekong province in 2009.
Good collaboration between public health systems and communities – a prerequisite for the successand sustainability of PHC, including disease and target-specific programmes – was seen in Viet Nam
and Lao PDR. In Viet Nam, malaria control and EPI demonstrated an effective interface with community
organizations such as Women’s Unions, Youth Unions and National Construction Fronts. Such interface
with local organizations was also well-structured in Lao PDR, providing examples of good practices forother Member States in the Western Pacific.
Though global and regional strategies for most disease and target-specific programmes advocate
better coordination between programmes in the context of HSS, it does not seem easy to accomplish.
For example, in southern Lao PDR, while EPI provided excellent service contact opportunities bothat health facilities and in communities, even very simple interventions such as physical checks andgrowth monitoring of infants had often not been done. EPI and MNCH integration were stipulated asnational policies, but the actual application in the field still requires additional practical ideas, trials andoperational research.
The assessment of malaria and EPI in Lao PDR also identified two specific aspects of service coordinationthat had HSS implications. The provincial health accounting office recognised that the accounting
32 Technical Report vol.08

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5. Findings: Status of six building blocks of health systems observed
from the perspective of disease and target-specific programmes

workload would be reduced if community visits for malaria work were integrated with visits for otherprogrammes. The programme also faced difficulty in assuring the quality of malaria diagnosis in bothpublic health laboratories that test surveillance specimens and clinical laboratories that test clinicalspecimens in health facilities because they were governed by different departments of the MOH.

5-2. Health workforce
Shortage of skilled health staff was a common system-wide barrier in all subject countries. In Cambodia,
the shortage was seen as a bottleneck to both the TB programme and EPI. In Viet Nam, EPI faceddifficulty in inheriting programme experiences from its successful implementation over the past decades
due to staff turnover – particularly the retirement of core staff – indicating that human resources
development is not a one-time intervention, but rather a long-term investment.
The human resources shortage was exemplified particularly when equipment, commodities andtechniques were newly introduced or enhanced in the health systems. In Viet Nam, for example,
microscopes to diagnose malaria were provided by GFATM at the sub-district level, but there wereinsufficient staff at that level that could use them properly, creating a gap between material and humanresources. In Kampong Cham, Cambodia, GAVI-provided RBF increased MNCH financial resources, but
imbalances between financial, human and material resources still obstructed service delivery in somelocations.
As described above, the disease and target-specific programmes, particularly infectious disease control,
provided opportunities for programme-based annual training for new employees, as well as refresher
training. In each of the countries, for example, standardised training on malaria and EPI enabled local
health staff to provide better services with assured quality and safety.
GAVI and GFATM created additional training opportunities through their HSS support. From 2008, GAVI
supported a nine month certification course in Viet Nam for VHWs in order to improve the quality of
their work in villages. Also, GFATM supported a three month training course on malaria control for new
VHWs and a refresher course for workers who had already been trained. Local authorities, however, wereconcerned about the sustainability of these training courses because the support was only pledged fora limited duration. This was particularly true for the GAVI course because it had been newly establishedby GAVI, separate from the existing training system, and was considered difficult to sustain after GAVI’s
support finished.
Staff training was considered a potential area where different disease and target-specific programmes
Technical Report vol.08

33

could work together in harmony in the future. In Sekong province of Lao PDR, for example, there were
two separate training programmes for MNCH and EPI, but the MNCH training also featured EPI and viceversa, suggesting the potential for the future integration of the two.

5-3. Health information systems
The interface between HSS and disease-specific programme provides a tangible aspect of the information
system: how the programme-specific reporting systems interact with the sector-wide HIS. Indeed, oneof the strengths of the disease and target-specific programmes is their robust internalised reporting
systems, typically reflected in effective malaria and EPI reporting systems from the community level all
the way up to the central level.
In Lao PDR, malaria reporting was partially integrated into the national HIS, which enabled the Statistics
Unit to validate the data for malaria cases by comparing the data from HIS and the malaria programme.
Malaria data was largely consistent between those filed in the HIS and those kept at malaria stations.
However, GFATM reporting requirements forced the malaria programme to continue to use its specificreporting forms in addition to the HIS form, complicating the entire reporting process. As of 2009 neither
MNCH nor EPI reporting were integrated into the national HIS in southern Sekong province. Rather, thecommunity health staff submitted five different reporting forms, each covering different programmecomponents of MNCH-EPI.49
In Cambodia, the MOH and its partners tried to centralise HIS in the late 1990s. Insufficient central
capacity to operate the system, however, caused reporting delays in the centralised system. To overcome
this new bottleneck, the programmes had to maintain parallel reporting systems.

5-4. Medical products, vaccines and technologies
Supply chain management (SCM) also poses a system-wide barrier to disease and target-specificprogrammes. In Viet Nam, for example, EPI was impeded by insufficient cold chain and vaccine delivery
systems in remote areas. Similarly, lack of microscopes and malaria diagnostic capability at the commune(sub-district) level hindered programme implementation. In Lao PDR, a shortage of iron and folic acidtablets impeded antenatal care and forced mothers to buy them for a fee at private pharmacies.
As in the case of the information system, the integration of formerly programme-specific SCM progressed
49. Lattanavong P., et al. Report: Assessment of MCH/EPI service synergies along life-course of mothers and children in Sekong
Province, Lao PDR. Vientiane: National MCH Centre, Lao PDR, 2009.

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5. Findings: Status of six building blocks of health systems observed
from the perspective of disease and target-specific programmes

at different rates in different programmes and countries. In southern Lao PDR, a unified storage system
was adopted, abolishing separate storage and logistics for malaria. Local health authorities consider
this an improvement in stock management efficiency by simplifying the information flow. The storage
condition of ACT drugs was also improved by using the unified regional warehouses.
Cambodia experienced the negative side of the integrated system, as it did in the information system,
particularly with the system developed around the CMS (see 4-1. Medical products, vaccines andtechnologies). Limited central capacity caused a shortage of drug supplies, forcing the programmes torevitalise their vertical and separate storage and logistics.

5-5. Health systems financing
The reverse pyramid status of health budget allocation, in which allocation to central and provincial levels
far surpasses that to district and community levels, caused a prominent shortage in local operationalcosts for major disease and target-specific programmes. The unit cost analysis of MNCH-EPI in Sekong,
Lao PDR showed that overhead costs (costs spent at national and provincial levels regardless of theservice quantity at the service units) constituted the majority of the unit cost of all MNCH-EPI services.50
In Viet Nam, more than half of the malaria budget was spent at the central level, although this included
centralised equipment and commodities procurement. As a result, local transportation costs for CHWs to
implement the programmes were insufficient.
RBF was a common solution in Viet Nam and Cambodia to curb such local fund shortages. In Viet Nam,
RBF applied to EPI (see Section 4-3, Health system financing) improved motivation among VHWs. Also,
both in malaria control and EPI, incentive payments to CHWs provided precious additional income forthem. In Cambodia, RBF started in 2002 through contracting or HSS support though GAVI. It ensured thetimely disbursement of staff incentives as supplements to their often delayed salaries from the MOH
budget. It strengthened the capacity for financial management with increased accountability, particularly
at the district level. Health centre (HC) staff incomes increased markedly, enabling them to live decent
lives with income from their health sector jobs alone. HCs revenue increased both by disbursement
through RBF and increased user fees with increased patient visits. Due to its result-based nature, the
RBF introduction in 2007 boosted MNCH visits to HCs in Kampong Cham, Cambodia,51 though the sharp
utilisation response was short-lived, and utilisation soon reached a plateau, long before the coverageapproached 100%.
50. Lattanavong 2009.
51. Matsuoka S., et al. “Performance-based financing with GAVI health system strengthening funding in rural Cambodia: A brief
assessment of the impact”. Health Policy & Plan 2013; 29 (4): 456-465.

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Behind many notable benefits, the assessments and research identified several limitations of RBF. In Viet
Nam, though RBF boosted motivation among VHWs, it subsequently became difficult to motivate themwithout the incentive. In Cambodia, RBF did not resolve the fundamental issue of delays in government
budget allocations and re-allocation at mid-level health administrations before reaching the field. Rather,
RBF consolidated direct local public financing by development partners by bypassing the MOH. In thecontext of MNCH in Kampong Cham, RBF could not always overcome impeded service delivery due toshortages of human and material resources. Furthermore, because RBF does not immediately improvethe capacity of health personnel, it did not effectively ensure the technical quality of HC services. Last,
RBF was relatively costly. In Kroch Chhmar Health Operational District of Kampong Cham province, with a
total population of 100,527, approximately US$ 80,000 was budgeted for MNCH-related RBF in 2009.
Accounting is another dimension of financial management that was observed to have an HSS implication.
In Lao PDR, at the time of the assessment in 2011, provincial health authorities had a plan to unify
separate accounting systems for different programmes into a single integrated system that would enable
them to appropriately allocate budgets according to local priorities. However, it has not been realised asof July 2014.

5-6. Leadership and governance
The first aspect of leadership and governance elaborated by the assessment was the politicalcommitment of national governments to different programmes. In Viet Nam, the success of malaria
control and EPI was attributed to the Government’s high political commitment, along with strong
national steering committees that enabled the effective implementation of the programmes.
The second aspect was the level of capacity each government demonstrated in coordinating andharmonising different disease and target-specific programmes. In Cambodia, strengthening of district
health management was attempted through the participation of decision-makers in the integrated
supervision and support of health centre staff. In Sekong province, Lao, PDR, MNCH and EPI planning andbudgeting were separate at the provincial and district levels, largely due to the distinct budget lines set
forth for each of them. Despite this, the collaboration between MNCH and EPI was generally good andsupervisory visits usually covered both programmes.52
The last aspect of leadership and governance that stood out was how the national governments
coordinated different sources of external assistance. In Lao PDR, the malaria planning and budgeting
process and timing were largely determined by GFATM requirements, and thus were difficult to integrate
52. Lattanavong 2009.

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5. Findings: Status of six building blocks of health systems observed
from the perspective of disease and target-specific programmeswith sector-wide planning and budgeting. Also, in Sekong province, Lao PDR, external support largely
affected MNCH and EPI services provision.53 It was particularly notable that the discontinuation ofsuch support could cause significant service disruptions. In Viet Nam, some key informants shared
the view that increased international donor support could weaken Government leadership and social
mobilisation.
As described above, external support is essential for Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam to implement
disease and target-specific programmes, but the countries face challenges in linking these programmes
firmly to the overall HSS framework based on national health plans. In Cambodia, for example, various
RBF schemes operate in fragmented ways. The fragmentation was in three dimensions: geographicalareas, service components and time. The fragmentation in time occurs because most externally
supported schemes are time-limited, usually within 5 years. Thus, various efforts towards sector
coordination, such as the development of common work plans and monitoring frameworks, areundertaken, particularly in Cambodia and Lao PDR, to maximise aid effectiveness.

53. Lattanavong 2009.

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6.
		
		

Analysis 1:
How has HSS contributed, and can further contribute to,disease and target-specific programmes?

On the basis of the findings described above, HSS has contributed, and can continue to contribute, todisease and target-specific programmes in several ways.
Figure 1:				Summary of how HSS has contributed and can further contribute to disease andtarget-specific programmes and how disease and target-specific programmes havecontributed and can further contribute to HSS (cf. Section 7, Analysis 2)
HSS

1)
2)
•
•
•
•
3)

•
•

•

Streamlining sector
planning and budget
allocation
Managing sectorcommon functions:
HRD
HIS
SCM
health social security
Coordinating/harmonising different
programmes andplayers:
Coordinating different
programmes
Coordinating clinicaland public health aswell as private andpublic work units
Coordinating
development partners

HRD

Human resource development

HIS

Health information system

SCM

Supply chain management

Disease & targetspecific programmes
1)
•
•

2)
•
•

Resource andopportunity creation for
HSS:
Providing additional
financial resources for
HSS
Contributing to health
HRD through their regularprogramme training andadditional training
opportunities
Ensuring a high service
coverage with community
penetration:
Spearheading
community-based service
delivery
Facilitating collaboration
between health systemand community

HSS contributions to disease and target-specific programmes are classified into three main categories:

1. Streamlining sector planning and budgeting:
Health sector-wide planning is an increasingly important HSS function to coordinate different healthprogrammes. While the existing sector plans usually do not fully integrate budgets in Cambodia, Lao
PDR and Viet Nam, budget allocation is another critical aspect of HSS, though not easy to streamline. As
observed in Cambodia, the GHI can provide programmes with additional financial resources (in this case38 Technical Report vol.08

Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

6. Analysis 1:How has HSS contributed, and can further contribute to,disease and target-specific programmes?

through RBF).54 However, ironically, such arrangements not only fail to resolve the fundamental issueof delays in government budget allocations and misallocations of budget at lower administrative levels,
but also consolidate auxiliary cash flows directly from development partners to local health facilities.
Streamlining budget allocation is an aspect where HSS can further contribute to health programmes.

2. Managing sector-common functions:
HRD: Strengthened HRD is not only an essential element of improved services in all health programmes,
but also critical in maintaining already well-functioning programmes such as EPI, considering the staff
turnover. A shortage of skilled health staff was a common system-wide barrier in all subject countries.
Staff training is an area where different disease and target-specific programmes can work together inharmony in the future, and HSS can facilitate such harmonisation. Although not in the scope of thisdocument, a project conducted in Myanmar by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in
collaboration with NCGM tried to integrate different programmes’ training targeting PHC workers at thecommunity level.55
HIS: HSS can potentially utilise the HIS platform to facilitate the integration of information systems.
However, this poses a particular challenge to HSS (see “Lack of national capacity to maintain coordinated
HIS and SCM”, below). As observed in Lao PDR, the reporting requirements of external support agencies
may split HIS. Also, the country’s attempt to integrate MNCH-EPI did not automatically facilitate theintegration of the information systems. The findings suggest the need to make a flexible decision as towhether to pursue integrated HIS or continue to use programme-specific information systems, taking
into consideration the existing management capacity.
SCM: As mentioned in section 5-4 (“Medical products, vaccines and technologies”), in some settings
the integrated SCM worked, whereas in others it did not. Similar to HIS, the findings support a
flexible decision as to whether to pursue an integrated logistics system or to continue to use parallel,
programme-specific systems, taking management capacity into consideration. Generally, however, it ismore cost-effective if SCM is integrated.
Health social security, including health insurance: In an aim to attain UHC, non-out-of-pocket healthfinancing schemes – such as social insurance, health equity funds and systematic payment exemptions– are being introduced in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam. Some parts of disease and target-specific
54. Matsuoka 2013.
55. NCGM. Annual Report 2011: Bureau of International Medical Cooperation, National Center for Global Health and Medicine,Japan. Tokyo: National Center for Global Health and Medicine, 2011, p. 31.

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health programmes, mostly clinical interventions such as delivery and neonatal care in MNCH, areexpected to attract more clients as a result of decreased financial barriers with the expansion of thehealth social security schemes.

3. Coordinating/harmonising different programmes and players:
Coordinating different disease and target-specific programmes: The Sector Wide Coordination (SWC)
mechanism in Lao PDR and the Sector Wide Management (SWiM) framework in Cambodia pose usefulplatforms in which HSS can facilitate coordination and harmonisation. These coordination mechanisms
are expected to contribute to better programme and aid efficiency by getting the most out of theavailable (often scarce) resources while minimising workloads and transaction costs.
Coordinating clinical and public health, as well as public and private units: As the assessment of malaria
control in Lao PDR revealed, medical facilities and public health systems could be better harmonised, forexample to form a more integrated laboratory network to derive better malaria diagnosis at local levels.
Coordinating development partners: The sector coordination mechanism provides a platform to better
harmonise different development partners. By putting the MOH in the driver’s seat, it also ensures theownership and leadership of the countries concerned.
The assessments also identified the following three challenges that need to be overcome for HSS tobetter contribute to the disease and target-specific programmes and other health interventions:
1. Lack of a clear strategy and action tools for programme harmonisation:
In the difficult geographic conditions of southern Lao PDR, the precious EPI outreach visits were notused for simple additional interventions such as physical checks and growth monitoring of infants,
despite the national policy stipulation of MNCH-EPI integration. For the service integration designed
under HSS platform to be functional, a clearer strategy with operational action tools needs to be
developed.
2. Lack of national capacity to maintain coordinated HIS and SCM:
The assessments also identified the need for enhanced national capacity to manage sector-common
functions, particularly integrated HIS and SCM.
3. Uncoordinated deployment of human, material and financial resources:
Provision of microscopes without skilled human resources did not derive better malaria diagnosis
40 Technical Report vol.08

Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

6. Analysis 1:How has HSS contributed, and can further contribute to,disease and target-specific programmes?

in Viet Nam, whereas RBF without human resources intervention derived limited improvement in
MNCH service delivery in Cambodia. National health plans need to coordinate investments in human,material and financial resources to avoid such mismatches. HSS is in a position to actively promoteand support the development of a national health plan taking this important aspect into account.

Technical Report vol.08

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7. Analysis 2: How have disease and target-specific programmes contributed,
and can further contribute, to HSS?

7.
		
		

Analysis 2:
How have disease and target-specific programmes 		
contributed, and can further contribute, to HSS?

The previous section reviewed how HSS has contributed, and can further contribute, to disease andtarget-specific programmes and other health interventions. This section, conversely, elaborates ways inwhich disease and target-specific programmes such as HIV, TB, malaria, EPI and MNCH have contributed,
and can further contribute, to HSS.
Disease and target-specific programmes mainly contributed to HSS in two ways:

Resource and opportunity creation for HSS:
Providing additional financial resources for HSS: Disease and target-specific programmes, throughvarious GHI, provided new resources for HSS. As mentioned in section 2-3 above, GHI focusing mainly
on infectious diseases, in particular GAVI, GFATM, HSFP and IHP+, have spearheaded global HSS support.
For such resource mobilisation mechanisms supporting HSS to continue, it is essential to demonstrate
how HSS enhances health by contributing to disease and target-specific programmes and other healthinterventions as highlighted in section 6 above.
Contributing to health HRD through regular programme training and additional training opportunities:
The disease and target-specific programmes, particularly infectious disease control, provide
opportunities for annual training of new employees and refresher training for their own programmes.
Furthermore, GAVI and GFATM create additional training opportunities through their HSS support in thesubject countries, mainly targeting the community level.

Ensuring high service coverage with community penetration:
Spearheading community-based service delivery: In Lao PDR, EPI spearheaded community outreachin terms of penetration and expansion, with which MNCH is now collaborating. Thus, the disease andtarget-specific programmes can establish a bridgehead for more integrated, broad-based health services
particularly in remote communities.
Facilitating collaboration between health systems and communities: In Viet Nam and Lao PDR,
programmes such as malaria control and EPI demonstrated effective interface with community
organizations such as Women’s Unions, Youth Unions and the National Construction Front. Such solid
collaboration constitutes a basis for universal and community-based service delivery.

Programme
42 Technical Report vol.08 Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

8. Analysis 3: Relation models between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes –How can both contribute to sustainable health systems?

8.
		
		
		

Analysis 3:
Relation models between HSS and disease andtarget-specific programmes –How can both contribute to sustainable health systems?

Figure 2 depicts a relation model between HSS and the disease and target-specific programmes. The
first figure shows a simplified model in which the disease and target-specific programmes stand on theirown as dissociated sub-systems of the entire health system. In resource-limited settings, this model
often represents a large part of reality partly because the disease and target-specific programmes areintended to provide services to communities where there is a lack of common health systems capacity.
The lower figure shows an idealised model of how disease and target-specific programmes can be better
coordinated and harmonised on a solid base of health systems.
Figure 2:

Relation model between HSS and the disease and target-specific programmes

Disease and target-specific programmes as dissociated sub-systems

Disease and target-specific programmes integrated upon a solid
health systems base
The above figures, particularly the lower one, illustrate the fact that the common health system base andthe disease and target-specific programmes are inseparable. In fact, one is a part of the other and they
are mutually dependent. Both of them are integral parts of a comprehensive health system.

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What do the empty base in the upper figure and the blue base in the lower figure represent in reality?
They represent common institutions and functions of health systems. These common institutions andfunctions include sector-wide planning and budgeting, managing sector-common functions (i.e. HRD,
HIS and SCM and health social security) and programme coordination and harmonisation. These were
elaborated in Analysis 1 above in terms of how HSS has contributed, and can further contribute, todisease and target-specific programmes and other health interventions. The base also represents sectorcommon resources, including human, financial and material.
Though the disease and target-specific programmes (EPI, HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and MNCH) provide
the foundation of health service delivery in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam, they do not represent
all necessary health services. There are also essential public health functions, such as outbreak
response, water and food safety and environmental/occupational health. Furthermore, diagnosis andtreatment of common, but unspecific infectious diseases such as respiratory infections/pneumonia anddiarrhoea, and prevention, diagnosis and treatment of common non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
such as hypertension, diabetes and injuries are as essential as the existing disease and target-specificinterventions. In Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam, particularly the former two, the control of NCD has
not been well established.
Figure 3 illustrates another relation model encompassing health sector-common functions and theirrelations to the existing disease and target-specific programmes, essential public health functions andother critical health programmes. Figure 3 shows that the sector-common functions fostered by HSS– namely streamlining sector planning and budget allocation, coordinating and harmonising different
health programmes and players, and managing sector-common functions – support not only existing
disease and target-specific health programmes, but also essential public health functions and othercritical health programmes. Sector planning and budget allocations provide a general policy direction
under which health programmes operate. Coordinating and harmonising different health programmes
and players is expected to provide better service synergies and increased efficiency. The sector-common
functions – including HRD, HIS, SCM and health social security – provide foundations on which healthprogrammes can function properly.
Figure 3 shows a future ideal. In reality, the disease and target-specific programmes (plus someessential public health functions such as outbreak response) are standing firmly on their own, and othercomponents are trying to catch up.

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Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific Programmes

8. Analysis 3: Relation models between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes –How can both contribute to sustainable health systems?

Figure 3:				

Relation model comprehending health sector-common functions and their relation 		with disease and target-specific initiatives, essential public health functions and othercritical health programmes

Health sector-wideplanning and budgeting
Coordinating
programmes,
work units anddevelopment
partners

Managing
sector-wide
functions

Disease and targetspecific healthprogrammes: EPI,
HIV, TB, malaria and
MNCH, etc.

Essential publichealth functions:
Response tooutbreaks and otherpublic healthemergencies, waterand food safety,
environmental/occup
ational health etc.

Other critical healthprogrammes: NCD
including injuries,
common non-specificinfectious diseases e.g.
respiratory infection
and diarrhoea, etc.

Human resource development (HRD)
Health information system (HIS)
Supply chain management (SCM)
Health social security (e.g. health insurance)

EPI
Expanded Programme on Immunization
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
TB
Tuberculosis
MNCH Maternal, neonatal and child health
NCD Non-communicable diseases

Technical Report vol.08

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9.

Conclusions and the way forward

Following is the list of conclusions drawn from this research:
1. Over the past decades, the HSS concept has evolved and provided a common understanding that
HSS is a lynchpin for the success and sustainability of different health programmes, particularly
those implemented in resource-poor settings. Current global and regional strategies for EPI, HIV, TB,
malaria and MNCH all include coordination with other programmes as well as harmonisation with
HSS as their core component.
2. GAVI, GFATM, HSFP and IHP+ spearheaded global HSS support in the past decade.
3. Observing the six building blocks of health systems from the perspective of disease and targetspecific programmes in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam, the following notable findings were
elaborated:
Health service delivery: Hard-to-reach populations and areas were generally prevalent in Lao
PDR, whereas they were specifically defined in Viet Nam (e.g. migration sites). Good collaboration
between public health systems and community organisations was observed in Viet Nam and Lao
PDR. Lack of service integration still poses missed opportunities, particularly at the community levelin Lao PDR.
Health workforce: Shortage of skilled health staff was a common system-wide barrier in all three
countries. The human resources shortage was particularly exemplified with the introduction of new
equipment, commodities and techniques. Disease and target-specific programmes provide annual
training of new employees and refresher training opportunities. GAVI and GFATM created additional
training opportunities through their HSS support.
Health information system: HIS integration often faces difficulties. Cambodia vigorously pursued an
integrated HIS in the late 1990s but faced a major challenge in terms of national capacity to maintainit.
Medical products, vaccines and technologies: Procurement, supplies and logistics often pose asystem-wide barrier to disease-specific programmes. The integration of SCM was adopted step-bystep in southern Lao PDR. Cambodia, on the other hand, vigorously pursued an integrated SCM in
the late 1990s, but faced major challenges in terms of national capacity to maintain it.

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9. Conclusions and the way forward

Health system financing: A reverse pyramid budget allocation with disproportionally limited
allocations to the community level caused a significant shortage of local operational costs. RBF isparticularly common in Cambodia, but is also seen in Viet Nam. Although RBF contributed to thereallocation of budget to local levels, some negative impacts were also reported.
Leadership and governance: The importance of national political commitment in implementing
health programmes was particularly highlighted in Viet Nam. Coordinating and harmonising different
disease and target-specific programmes in terms of different external assistance was an important
aspect of the leadership and governance function of health systems in the country.
4. HSS contributed, and can further contribute, to disease and target-specific health programmes inthree main aspects:a. Streamlining sector planning and budget allocation;b. Coordinating and harmonising different programmes and players; andc. Managing sector-common functions (i.e. health HRD, HIS, SCM and health social security).
Disease and target-specific programmes, conversely, contributed, and can further contribute, to HSS
in two main aspects:
a. Resource and opportunity creation for HSS; andb. Ensuring high service coverage with community penetration.
HSS and the disease and target-specific programmes are inseparable. In fact, one is a part of theother and they are interdependent. Both of them are integral parts of a comprehensive healthsystem.
5. The assessments also identified the following three challenges to overcome for HSS to better
contribute to the disease and target-specific programmes and other health interventions:a. Lack of clear strategy and action tools for programme harmonisation;b. Lack of national capacity to maintain coordinated HIS and SCM; andc. Uncoordinated deployment of human, material and financial resources.
Considering the way forward towards better harmonisation between HSS and the disease and targetspecific programmes, the following are areas where new and innovative efforts are needed:
1. Aligning disease and target-specific programmes with sector-wide planning and other HSS aspects:
The disease and target-specific programmes need to make efforts to align themselves with theTechnical Report vol.08

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sector-wide planning pursued in Lao PDR (SWC) and Cambodia (SWiM). The support schemes for
programmes such as GFATM and GAVI at the country level also need to align their planning andreporting requirements to those of the recipient governments, trying to avoid as much as possible
the demand for separate multi-year planning with or without costing and reporting. However, suchharmonisation may take time and can only be attained in a step-by-step fashion.
2. Transferring service delivery models of the existing disease and target-specific programmes toother health programmes: The service delivery models of the existing disease and target-specificprogrammes should be transferred to other health programmes that lack established structuresand functions. These services include diagnosis and treatment of common, but unspecific infectious
diseases such as respiratory infections/pneumonia and diarrhoea, as well as prevention, diagnosis
and treatment of common NCDs such as hypertension, diabetes and injuries. ART for HIV and DOTS
for TB, for example, may provide useful operational models for continuous follow-up and medication
for the chronic NCDs (despite the need to mobilise relatively large financial resources to sustain
the services). It is apparent that health systems are not solely aiming to sustain and strengthen the
disease and target-specific programmes covered in this document (i.e. EPI, HIV, TB, malaria and
MNCH), but also to strengthen other important health services that are not yet well established.
3. Appropriately positioning financing of disease and target-specific programmes and HSS in healthfinancing reform towards UHC: In the face of expanding non-out-of-pocket health financing schemes– such as social insurance, health equity funds and systematic payment exemptions in Cambodia,
Lao PDR and Viet Nam – in an attempt to attain UHC, financing of the disease and target-specificprogrammes and HSS need to be appropriately positioned in the overall health financing design.
The disease and target-specific programmes have mostly been centrally financed with no or limiteduser fees apart from clinical services for MNCH. Ear-marked external support, especially through
GFATM and GAVI, have played important roles in financing these programmes. However, there is atrend to diversify fund sources for such programmes from ear-marked external supports and directgovernment budget allocation alone to other emerging financing mechanisms including healthinsurance. For example, Viet Nam is attempting to integrate HIV treatment into the health insurance
benefit package.56, 57 Philippines included TB-DOTS in the benefit package of its National Health
Insurance (PhilHealth).58
56. Tran BX, et al. Potential impacts of expanding social health insurance coverage for pateints with HIV/AIDS in Vietnam (oralpresentation abstract in proceedings). Melbourne: 20th International AIDS Conference, 2014.
57. Abt Associates. Sustainable Financing of HIV/AIDS services for PHLIV in Vietnam-the contribution of Social Health Insurance:
A pilot model for Ninh Binh and Dong Thap Provinces. Hanoi: Abt Associates-USAID/HPI Vietnam, 2013.
58. Romualdez AG. “TB-DOTS in the Philippines: impact of decentralization and health sector reform”. Bull WHO 2007; 85(5):399-400.

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9. Conclusions and the way forward

Although HSS directly contributes to UHC through service expansion and its sector financing function(building block 5), the financing of HSS itself through newly introduced non-out-of-pocket financing
schemes is considered difficult. Revenues from and allocated budget for such schemes are usually
ear-marked for the provision of clearly defined health service packages, whereas most of HSS costs
are indirect costs and overhead, and hence need direct budget allocations. Therefore, the existing
HSS financing through the disease-specific initiatives is considered to be a very rational choice anddeserves to be continued with increased efficiency and effectiveness.
4. Long-term strengthening of the foundation of health systems need to be distinctly programmed
and funded: Though harmonisation between HSS and disease and target-specific health programmes
is the key theme of this document, such harmonisation alone will not automatically ensure HSS
in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam. Disease and target-specific programmes can support healthsystems mainly through resource and opportunity creation and ensuring high service coverage with
community penetration as described in Analysis 2 above. However, strengthening health systems
requires more comprehensive improvement in fundamentals such as policies and regulation, as
well as organization and incentive systems to optimise the behaviours of both clients and service
providers to maximise outcomes.59 Strengthening health systems, therefore, will not take placesolely from the interface between HSS and disease and target-specific programmes, but rather
demands designated policy and technical input into the very foundation of health systems and theirsector-common functions. Aside from the support activities to improve health services, long-term
strengthening of the foundation of health systems need to be distinctly programmed and funded.
NCGM has supported the development of nursing and midwifery legislation in Cambodia since2010 and in Lao PDR since 2011 through JICA. These interventions are examples of health systems
strengthening efforts to cater to health system-wide HRD at its foundation rather than programmebased health systems support. Programme-based HRD focuses more on human resources needs toensure present service deliveries, whereas health system-wide HRD that NCGM supports focuses
more on mid- to long-term institutional development. This discrepancy in focus sometimes poses
problems.
For example, a category of midwives in Lao PDR developed in line with the former is facing a barrierin carrier development because they do not hold bachelor’s degrees in nursing, which is required fortheir entry into master’s degree programmes. This shortfall is hindering the formation of a critical
59. Chee G., et al. “Why differentiating between health system support and health system strengthening is needed”. Int J Health
Plann Mgmt 2013, 28: 85-94.

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mass of midwives with master’s degrees that is expected to form the faculty of midwifery educationin Lao PDR. To fill such gaps between short-term programme demands and mid- to long-term healthsystem requirements, disease and target-specific programmes need to share mid- to long-term
health systems development perspectives.

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Technical Report vol.08

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Technical Report vol.08
Health System Strengthening and Disease and Target-specific
Programmes in Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic
and Viet Nam:

Towards Better Harmonisation
This report was prepared by:
Hitoshi Murakami Ph.D., M.D.
This work was supported by The Grant of National Center for
Global Health and Medicine (xx-xx)
National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Japan
Bureau of International Health Cooperation
1-21-1 Toyama, Shinjuku, Tokyo 162-8655, Japan
Tel: 81-3-3202-7181 / Fax: 81-3-3205-7860
info@it.ncgm.go.jp
www.ncgm.go.jp
Issued in March, 2015
©2015 National Center for Global Health and Medicine, Japan All rights reserved.