BANGKOK (ILO News) - The meeting was co-chaired by Dr Bouaphat Phonvisay, Deputy Director of the National Health Insurance Bureau of Lao People's Democratic Republic and Mr Nicolas Tasch, Attaché of the Embassy of Luxembourg in Vientiane. In line with the regional nature of the Project, senior officials from Lao People's Democratic Republic and Myanmar, such as the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and the National Health Insurance Bureau of Lao People's Democratic Republic, and from the Social Security Board (SSB) in Myanmar attended the meeting. Additional participants from the ILO included Mr Graeme Buckley, Director of the ILO Country Office for Thailand, Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic, Ms Marielle Phe Goursat, ILO Manager of the project, and Mr Nuno Cunha, ILO Senior Technical Specialist for Social Protection.

The “Support to extension of Social Health Protection in South East Asia” project is a 42 months project funded by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and implemented by the ILO. Its main objective is to support ‘more women and men in Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam have access to adequate social health protection’, through efforts aiming at strengthening institutional capacity and financial sustainability of social health insurance schemes in the three target countries. Furthermore, its regional approach contributes to the consolidation of and building on, of the regional expertise available in the region. With this in mind, Connect, an independent association of experts and development partners on social health protection in the Asia Pacific region has been successfully created with the aim to facilitate knowledge and capacity building on social health protection with a goal to support progress towards Universal Health Coverage across the region.

Marking the Project’s halfway implementation, the objective of the meeting was to discuss its progress and endorse the annual work plan and budget for 2020. Each year, a detailed implementation plan is produced based on in-depths consultations with national stakeholders in each country. The plan is then the reference for implementing activities at country and regional levels. The implementation status of the work plans was presented and reviewed against its planned outputs. Overall, it displayed a positive assessment with the great majority of the outputs achieved or on track. Mr Nicolas Tasch, attaché of the Embassy of Luxembourg in Vientiane, congratulated the Project team and stakeholders for their work, commitment, and for the results achieved so far. The Government of Luxembourg endorsed the Project’s 2020 work plan and budget. Mr Tasch reaffirmed that: ‘For the Government of Luxembourg, this project is very much aligned with our general Development Cooperation Strategy – Road to 2030, and the SDG's overall goal of the 2030 Agenda of Leaving No One Behind’.