The Regional Health Financing Forum 2025, themed ‘Enhancing Value for Money in Health Spending’, opened yesterday in Bahrain.
The three-day event, held in collaboration with the World Bank, brings together decision-makers and experts from health and finance ministries, national health insurance bodies, and international organisations, including the Global Fund and the World Health Organisation.
The aim is to exchange experiences and discuss innovative solutions to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of health financing in the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Mediterranean regions.
Supreme Council for Health (SCH) chairman Lieutenant General Dr Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, in his opening remarks, underscored Bahrain’s commitment to developing a more sustainable, efficient and equitable health system. He highlighted the challenges facing the health sector in the region and the need to strengthen financing methods.
He outlined Bahrain’s efforts, including restructuring service providers for greater flexibility, establishing a government fund for social health insurance, and integrating expatriate health insurance into the ‘Hakeem’ programme. “These initiatives represent a shift from traditional financing to active strategic purchasing based on efficiency and value.”
The SCH chairman emphasised that the forum serves as an important regional platform for exchanging best practices and lessons learned, encouraging participants to enrich discussions to achieve tangible and sustainable outcomes in health systems.
The forum features a series of panel discussions and workshops covering key topics such as more efficient and equitable financing mechanisms, pricing of priority health products, enhancing the role of the private sector, and specialised sessions on improving the quality of healthcare and pharmaceutical spending.
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