21. Five Things the Health Minister Should Do to Enhance the UK’s Global Health Footprint
- Author:
- Kalipso Chalkidou
- Publication Date:
- 07-2019
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- As Health Secretary Matt Hancock returns to his role as part of Boris Johnson’s premiership, he has an opportunity to make good on the UK’s renewed confidence and ambition by drawing on what the new prime minister calls the “best healthcare [system]” to drive improvements in health globally. The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care controls its biggest-ever official development assistance (ODA) budget, doubling between 2017 and 2018 to just under £200m, or 1.3 percent of the country’s aid allocation. This places the UK’s secretary of state for health in a unique position to truly make a difference in countries’ journeys towards universal healthcare coverage (UHC), whilst also defending (and making a case for more of) the ODA money his department has been allocated, even to development aid’s harshest critics. Here are five things he can do to make this happen, both using his own department’s ODA budget and influencing how DFID’s majority share is spent.
- Topic:
- Health, Governance, Health Care Policy, and Leadership
- Political Geography:
- United Kingdom and Europe