Many South-East Asian partner countries are currently in the process of implementing health  sector reforms. Reform approaches focus on improving the quality of services by decentralizing decision-making and budget competencies. However, the health sector staff of these countries is not sufficiently prepared for these new tasks.

The establishment and further development of (social) health financing systems is one important building block of health sector reform and a pre-requisite for the establishment and further development of efficient health services accessible to a large proportion of the population.

Medical drugs are an essential technology for preventative, curative, and rehabilitative health care. The number and categories of drugs increase all the time, while the funds available for health services are limited. The drugs budget competes with the budgets of other departments, such as those dealing with medical equipment or with personnel. The rational management of drugs is therefore an increasingly important task for public health.

Bi-annual, four-week modular seminars on "Management of Decentralized Health Services" and online courses on "Health Financing / Health Insurance" and "Drugs Management", accompanied by tutorials and completed with compulsory face-to-face seminars ("blended learning"), impart technical knowledge to executives and young executive staff from the health sector, which they will be able to apply during health reform processes in their countries.

Political decision-makers and public health executives who are dealing with decentralization issues and the financing of the health system; technical and executive staff from health insurance institutions, responsible ministries and decentralized public health services; representatives of training institutio¬ns; medical doctors, pharmacists and other technical and executive staff within the health sector

Pham Thi Phuong Thao
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