healthcare

• LEBANON: ‘The humanitarian emergency is escalating as local communities struggle to support the displaced’

  CIVICUS discusses the crisis in Lebanon with Zaher Sahloul, co-founder of MedGlobal, a US-based civil society organisation (CSO) that provides relief to victims of war, disaster and displacement, and supports excluded communities worldwide.

  The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon has escalated significantly due to Israeli airstrikes, with the growing number of internally displaced people further straining an already fragile social services system. The health system is struggling to protect its facilities and staff in conflict zones, deal with trauma and provide essential services to displaced people. Alongside the domestic civil society response, an influx of external support, including from civil society, is proving essential to contain the crisis.

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• Universal health coverage and the Post- 2015 Development Agenda

  Worldwide, about 150 million people a year face catastrophic healthcare costs because of direct payments such as user fees, while 100 million are driven below the poverty line. To the extent that people are covered by a risk pooling mechanism, their out-of-pocket expenditure will not cause financial hardship. Out-of-pocket expenditure for health also illuminates inequities in that richer countries—and richer populations within those countries—tend to have lower out-of-pocket expenditure.3 Additional indicators of access are needed for coverage, and experts at WHO are leading a working group on this challenging issue.
   
  Read more at Rockerfeller Foundation