London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

This hybrid event is taking place at the British Embassy in Berlin at 19:00-20:30 CET. Please contact us if you would like to attend in person.

Primary Health Care (PHC) is a vital component of all high-performing health systems and is an integral part of Universal Health Coverage. However, despite decades of being widely recognised as a global priority, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted that in most low and middle-income countries, PHC is not meeting the needs of either its users or providers. 

In this upcoming event from the LSHTM-Charité Global Health Lecture series,  Professor Kara Hanson,  and Prof Manuela de Allegri, chair and commissioner of the “The Lancet Global Health Commission on financing primary health care: putting people at the centre”, will present the Commission’s findings.  Dr Benjamin Tsofa will join us to share insights from his research on PHC financing in Kenya, and discuss together how countries could design their health financing arrangements for PHC, so that ultimately people are put at the centre. 

Prof Johanna Hanefeld, Head of the LSHTM office in Berlin and Professor of Global Health Policy, will chair and moderate the event. 

Learn more about the Lancet Global Health Commission on financing primary health care here.  

Speakers

Professor Kara Hanson 

Kara Hanson is Professor of Health System Economics and Dean of Faculty of Public Health and Policy at LSHTM. She has over 30 years of experience working on health system financing and organisation in low- and middle-income countries. Her research has addressed resource mobilisation and strategic purchasing, the role of the private sector in health systems in low- and middle-income countries and the economics of malaria and malaria control interventions. She has led a number of large multi-country research programmes and consortia, including Resilient and Responsive health systems (RSYSTS), a DFID-funded research programme consortium. She is co-chair of the Lancet Global Health Commission on Financing Primary Health Care, and the UHC2030 Transition and Sustainability Working Group.  

Professor Manuela de Allegri

Manuela De Allegri leads the Research Unit ‘Health Economics and Health Financing’ at the  Institute of Global Health of the University of Heidelberg since 2011. She has a diverse academic training in Sociology, Health Economics, and Public Health. Her areas of expertise include health financing, impact and process evaluation, and economic evaluation, with specific application to social health protection and provider payment mechanisms in low and middle-income countries. Her research focus ranges from maternal, newborn, and child care to chronic non-communicable diseases to global health diagnostics. She has been involved in research on the economic impact and social consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in low- and high-income settings. Manuela served as Commissioner on the Lancet Commission Financing Primary Health Care. She was also active as advisor to both the Evidence and Knowledge Group of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, supporting a research program on responsiveness and accountability of health insurance. 

Dr Benjamin Tsofa 

Benjamin Tsofa is a Principal Research Scientist - Health Policy & Systems Research at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme. He has over 20 years’ experience spanning through clinical practice, primary health management, health policy systems research and policy engagement. His research has focused on various aspects of health systems including health systems governance, human resources for health, service delivery systems, health financing and health policy analysis. He has a specific interest in health sector decentralization, resource allocation, priority setting, planning, and budgeting, using a governance lens. 

He currently leads the Health Policy and Systems Research Group, and the National Centre for the African Health Observatory Platform for Health Systems and Policies (AHOP) at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP). He is an adjunct health policy and systems lecturer at Pwani University, and Strathmore University in Kenya; and a visiting Nuffield Department of Medicine (NDM) Teaching Fellow at Oxford University. He also sits in several Technical Advisory Committees, where he provides technical assistance in several health systems strengthening initiatives and general health policy formulation and implementation at the sub-national and national levels in Kenya, and with the WHO AFRO regional office.

Professor Johanna Hanefeld 

Johanna Hanefeld is Professor of Global Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Lead of its Berlin office. Her work is situated within the field of health policy and systems and focuses on the political economy of global health. Her current research is on health systems, including resilience and quality, and on the impact of medical travel and migration. She is also the Head of the Centre for International Health Protection at the Robert Koch-Institute in Berlin.