Social Health Protection - Addressing inequities in access to health care
Online
Social Health Protection - Addressing inequities in access to health care
17 Marzo–18 Abril 2025
Presentación del curso
The right to social health protection is not yet a universal reality. Despite laudable progress during the COVID-19 pandemic, coverage has stalled since 2020, highlighting important implementation gaps. This online foundation course focuses on addressing inequities in access to health care within the context of national social health protection systems, including floors. The course offers a comprehensive introduction to social health protection and its role in achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and universal social protection (USP) within the framework of the 2030 Agenda. Participants will assess global and national trends in coverage, gain insights into the ILO's guiding principles, and review real-world examples from countries around the world. We will focus on technical strategies and practical implementation options for coverage extension, exploring sustainable financing mechanisms that promote equity and resource distribution, with a particular emphasis on pre-payment, risk pooling, and minimizing out-of-pocket expenses. Special attention will be given to strategies for reaching vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations, along with discussions on the scope of benefit packages and levels of financial protection. Please note a more advanced edition of this course, designed for practitioners who have significant prior knowledge and experience in developing and managing social health protection schemes, is offered in a blended (online and face-to-face) modality.
¿Quiénes participan en este curso?
This foundation course is designed for professionals responsible for social health protection and other social protection schemes with a health objective, in both governmental and non-governmental sectors. Representatives of employers ' and workers ' organizations are particularly welcome. The course primarily addresses the needs of policymakers; however, individuals working in research roles within health financing systems will also benefit from participating in this training activity.
What will I learn?
- Learn more about social determinants of health.
- Understand the scope and the significance of the financing gap for social protection (SDG 1.3) and health (SDG 3.8).
- Explore the essential dimension of human resources in health and the implications for social health protection.
- Frame national social health protection strategies and programmes in international normative frameworks.
- Understand the rationale for health and wellbeing of sickness and maternity benefits while looking at the implications of various financing mechanisms on the coverage and adequacy of the benefits.
- Explore, analyse and compare different models for revenue collection with practical examples and case studies.
- Assess different approaches and technical options for extending coverage – especially to informal workers and migrants and refugees – and broadening risk pooling.
- Benefit packages: understand the formulation process – selecting a range of health interventions and cost coverage.
- Learn about different approaches to purchasing health services in the context of social health protection schemes.
- Understand the importance of robust governance, management and administration of social health protection programmes to leverage the resources and structures offered by broader social protection and health systems.
- Identify the latest trends and the important role of emerging technologies in social health protection.
Why should I join?
- Learn from international social health protection experts where you are, with no need to travel.
- Join a global network of social protection and health professionals to share learning and best practices.
- Engage in a highly interactive digital learning environment hosted on the ITCILO’s eCampus, offering a wealth of online resources, case studies, weekly live sessions led by highly experienced trainers, and individual and group exercises to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing.
- Successful participants receive an ITCILO Certificate of Achievement.
- This course is an eligible course for the Diploma for Social Protection Managers. To achieve the Diploma, successful candidates must complete four courses within a five-year period and undertake a Capstone project.
How
The course consists of a number of online modules offered through the eCampus online platform to be completed over a period of five weeks 17 March to 18 April 2025, for an estimated total of 60 learning hours.
The course is offered in both English and French, with the aid of interpretation for some live sessions as well as two dedicated sessions in English and French. In week 4 of the course, from 7 to 11 April, daily tuition sessions will instead be streamed live from Turin (from 9:00 to 12:30 UTC+2, Italy time).
