The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a USD 600 million policy-based loan to help the Philippines provide quality and equitable health services for all Filipinos as part of its Universal Health Care (UHC) reform program.
The Build Universal Health Care Program seeks to support the government’s initiatives to improve the financing and delivery of health services and implement measures to monitor the performance of health service providers.
The program will expand the use of digital tools for the sector and ensure sharing of data among health information systems and databases. It will bolster the implementation capacity of the Department of Health and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and strengthen collaboration with other government agencies, local government units (LGUs), and the private sector.
In addition to the loan, ADB will administer a USD 2 million technical assistance grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction to support the implementation of health policy reforms in LGUs. ADB will also provide technical advice as the government prepares to implement the next set of UHC-related reforms by 2023.
(Source: Asian Development Bank)
