The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Egypt office organised the third seminar in Egypt on universal health coverage in the presence of Yoshifumi Omura and a number of officials from Egypt’s ministries of health and finance, health insurance organisations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO) among others.

The Egyptian and Japanese sides discussed the current situation and issues concerning social health insurance in Egypt after the new Social Health Insurance Law has received parliamentary approval in December 2017, according to Wednesday’s statement from JICA.

Makoto Tobe, JICA’s senior advisor in the field of health financing, presented the Japanese experience in revenue raising, pooling, purchasing and administration of universal health insurance systems, as well as health technology assessment.

JICA held the seminar as a response to the Egyptian government’s strong initiative in establishing the new universal health insurance system with the aim to provide all people with access to needed health services of sufficient quality to be safe and effective and ensure that the use of these services do not expose the user to financial hardship.

The seminar is held to share the Japanese knowledge and techniques in the field of universal health coverage that dates back to over 50 years ago so that the Egyptian side can avoid the obstacles that Japan faced and benefit from the Japanese experience in the practical implementation of the universal health insurance system.

Furthermore, JICA views the health sector as one of the highly prioritised sector for the social and economic developments of Egypt, Yoshifumi Omura JICA’s chief representative, told Daily News Egypt on 26 August 2018.

“The human resource development in the health sector is one of the components of the Egypt-Japan Education Partnership (EJEP), under which Egyptian physicians, nurses, and paramedics will be dispatched for training in Japan, in order to contribute and improve their skills and performance, as well as the quality of health care services in Egypt,” he declared.