LAO/017
Lao-Luxembourg Health Sector Support Programme

The focus of the Lao-Luxembourg Health Initiatives Support Programme is to assist the provincial and district health authorities in Bolikhamxay and Khammouane in achieving full coverage with more effective and efficient health services in accordance with national policies, strategies and plans:

• by setting up a more comprehensive public health-care system, comprising three distinct levels of care, each of which should offer a defined package of services, it is predicted that the coverage and quality of care could be significantly increased;
• by further strengthening the capacities of the Provincial Health Department to adequately plan, monitor and evaluate the health-care system, it is also expected that available (financial and human) resources will be allocated more effectively and efficiently, this will ultimately lead to additional savings which may be used to support essential services.

In a second step, in order to increase the overall rate of vaccination, thus contributing to the reduction of infant and maternal mortality, the Lao-Luxembourg Health Initiatives Support Programme gives its support to the implementation of the strategic plan over a period of five years by strengthening the management capacity (including planning) and supervision of the Expanded Program on Immunisation, the provision of vaccines and equipment for the cold chain, logistics support and management, as well as development of human resources.

In a third step, the Lao-Luxembourg Health Initiatives Support Programme will assist in the establishment and management of  technical services in five selected provinces by the way of maintenance workshops and supporting focused human resource skills development in the area of health facilities maintenance.

The programme will further strengthen the implementation and operationalisation of the national health-care technology policy at all levels of care. A secondary aim under the Support Programme's third component will be to sustain the operationalisation and to ensure the sustainability of physical infrastructure and medical equipment embedded in the Expanded Programme on Immunisation objective.

A fourth component will assist in the elaboration of appropriate health insurance systems at different levels that may inform the roadmap for the establishment of a national health insurance system. It will address both the demand side in terms of prepayment schemes as well as supply systems in terms of implementing performance incentives schemes.