HEALTH AND SOCIAL PROTECTION MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE POOR
                                                  Conference in Vientiane 9-10 October 2008
                                   Hosted by the National Institute of Public Health, Vientiane, the China Health
                                   Development Forum and the POVILL Consortium
INTRODUCTION
There is a growing concern about the impact of rapid economic and social change in Asian transitional economies on the capacity of households to cope with major illness. Governments and NGOs have implemented a variety of innovative interventions to address this issue. A number of research studies are underway. These studies largely focus on a single country and there have been few opportunities for cross country exchanges of experiences and research findings. One exception is the POVILL Consortium, which is undertaking studies in Cambodia, China and Lao PDR. This consortium is working closely with the China Health Development Forum to establish a regional forum for mutual learning about issues of health system reform. The National Institute of Public Health of Lao PDR will host the conference on behalf of the POVILL Consortium and this regional forum.
As the POVILL team developed its research study its members became increasingly aware of the complexity of the issues involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of large-scale interventions to strengthen the capacity of households to cope with major illness. We have produced a collection of papers which explore these issues to be published as a book by the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. One conclusion of this book is of the need for ongoing exchanges between researchers, policy-makers and health system managers to establish a learning approach for addressing the major challenges in adapting health systems to the rapid spread of market relationships. The conference is being organised with this in mind.
The conference objectives are: (i) to present the preliminary findings of the POVILL study and seek guidance from policy-makers and other stakeholders on how to ensure they contribute to policy debates, (ii) to provide an opportunity for exchanges and lesson learning on key issues related to health and social protection and (iii) to explore possibilities for ongoing exchanges on these issues.
The participants will include policy-makers, officials of organisations involved in efforts to strengthen social protection against serious illness and researchers.
For more information about the conference, please contact Dr. Kongsap Akkhavong (email: laoniph@laotel.com) or Ms. Jas Vaghadia (email: j.Vaghadia@ids.ac.uk).