Innovative health financing for refugees

Area of Science:

• Global Health
• Public Health Policy
• Humanitarian Aid

Background:

• Over 65 million people are forcibly displaced, with over 22 million refugees facing protracted displacement exceeding 10 years.
• Current funding for refugee assistance, primarily from high-income countries post-emergency, is unsustainable and insufficient for rising health needs.
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees allocated only 12% of its budget to essential services in 2016, highlighting funding gaps.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore innovative humanitarian health financing for refugees amidst increasing global displacement.
• To identify strategies for integrating refugees into host country national health systems for improved health outcomes.
• To propose a sophisticated financing toolkit adaptable to diverse refugee contexts and needs.

Main Methods:

• Exploration of diverse innovative financing instruments and humanitarian health funding sources.
• Analysis of integrating refugees into existing national health infrastructures.
• Consideration of public and private partnerships for varied resource mobilization.

Main Results:

• Proposed Refugee Health Financing Model (FinRef) for acute emergencies.
• Advocated for health insurance and pay-for-performance modalities for protracted refugee situations.
• Emphasized the need for pre-emergency, multi-year planning and risk-transfer instruments.

Conclusions:

• Innovative financing models are essential for sustainable and effective refugee health services.
• Collaboration between traditional and non-traditional partners is required to trial new financial schemes.
• Experimentation and acceptance of model failures are necessary for future success in refugee health financing.