Global Knowledge and Local Wisdom: World Bank Group Academy launches Health Flagship Course in the Pacific

People across the Pacific share a vision of “healthy islands.” However, the region faces many challenges as it seeks to invest in healthy populations and reap the economic benefits that flow from a workforce in good health.

Pacific Island countries have some of the highest rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the world. Communicable diseases, like malaria and tuberculosis, are also widespread. Hospitals and health centers are often outdated and ill-equipped to respond to people’s health needs, let alone respond to the health threats of the growing frequency and severity of extreme weather events.

Managing these priorities comes with a significant price tag. Post COVID-19, many of the region’s national economies are still recovering and health spending is often not enough for the strategic reforms necessary to deliver better care at lower cost.

The World Bank Group is driving solutions to build stronger, more equitable health systems. Through financing, knowledge sharing, technical assistance, and partnerships, the Bank helps strengthen health systems, expand access to health services and advance health sector job creation. Last year, the Bank announced an ambitious goal to support countries across the world to provide affordable, quality health services to 1.5 billion people by 2030, a milestone that will drive economic development globally and advance progress towards Universal Health Coverage.

The Bank is supporting eight Pacific Island Countries with $172 million in International Development Association (IDA) financing. It is also working closely with key partners, including the Australian government and the World Health Organization (WHO), to address pressing health issues, while strengthening national health systems and better preparing countries for future health emergencies. Sharing knowledge on reforms needed for better health is a key part of this effort.

A cornerstone of the Bank’s support was the Pacific Health Systems Flagship Course. Faculty from the Bank’s global Health Nutrition and Population Unit coordinated closely with the Pacific Health team and regional experts to tailor a bespoke course that equipped policy makers, program managers, and technical staff from ministries of finance, development planning, and health with the best knowledge and tools to advance health sector reform. It was a compelling example of global knowledge meeting local wisdom to drive transformational health sector change.

Knowledge for Impact

The Pacific Health Systems Flagship Course is part of the new World Bank Group Academy, a strategic learning platform to empower government officials and private sector leaders to deliver transformative development solutions. The academy operates across a range of thematic areas including sustainable management of natural resources, fostering economic growth, harnessing digital technologies, and building human capital through investments in education, social protection, gender equality, and health.

The Pacific course focused on strengthening health systems by equipping policymakers with a valuable set of tools to encourage integrated approaches, promote multi-perspective thinking, and reinforce evidence-based analysis and decision-making.

Around 50 policymakers from Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Tuvalu spent a week exploring common challenges and mapping out solutions. Health ministers from five countries, and senior leadership from Australia, the World Bank, and the WHO participated in an executive session, which focused on policy reforms in a context of limited resources and competing priorities post COVID-19. Recognizing the need for cross sectoral collaboration, the course enabled health ministers and policy makers to strategize and plan alongside colleagues from ministries of planning, treasury, and finance.  

“This is the first time that officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health have come together,” said Pauline McNeil, Permanent Secretary for Health in Solomon Islands. “It's good that we are here together so that we can see where we need to make improvements and how we can better the relationship and the partnership that we have.”

Adaptive Action Plans for Change

The Flagship Course created space for country teams to build adaptive action plans for driving change in key health system policy areas. Specific initiatives that countries are implementing include:

• Building an integrated health information ecosystem by establishing a Centre for Health System Improvement in Fiji.
• Improving access to primary health care services in Tonga, with a focus on increasing NCDs screening, detection and management in communities.
• Developing a primary health care policy that promotes a people-centered health care service in Kiribati.
• Increasing health service coverage in Papua New Guinea by focusing on the development of a well-trained workforce of frontline health workers.
• Boosting the availability of in-country health services by reforming Tuvalu’s “Overseas Medical Referral Scheme.”
• Creating a “Neighboring Island Supply Chain Roadmap” to ensure that essential medical supplies are consistently available across the Marshall Islands.  
• Completing Samoa’s e-health system which will improve access to quality health care services at the community level.
• Responding to the increasing burden of NCDs in Solomon Islands by finalizing an essential health service package for primary health care at the community level.

“This was an excellent opportunity to learn not only about health systems within the Pacific region but also from the international stage,” said Reynold Ofanoa, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Health Tonga. “We learned how they operate and how to identify and fill gaps in the health system so our people can enjoy healthier lives.” 

The Future

Feedback from course participants was overwhelmingly positive. 92% rated the course quality as high or very high, 96% said they gained valuable knowledge and skills, and 98% said the knowledge they gained could be applied to their work. The cohort has built a network and will continue to share progress of their countries’ reform initiatives, building the foundation for a Pacific-wide community of practice focused on health system strengthening.

The World Bank Group Academy will become the host for newly revamped Health Systems Flagship Program, conceived as a convening space for key multisectoral stakeholders in the health arena to come together and find collective responses to their most striking health system performance challenges. This newly designed program aims to enhance the impact of ongoing or upcoming reforms, in the long term, and at a system level and is devised to enhance results in connection with regional health strategies.