ISQua & WHO

ISQua Collaborates with WHO on National Quality Policy & Strategy (NQPS)

With the growing momentum towards UHC, there is a corresponding increased awareness that improved access must be accompanied by focused efforts to improve the quality of health services.

As many of you know, WHO has an initiative aimed at supporting countries develop national directions on quality. The WHO National Quality Policy and Strategy (NQPS) initiative aims to support countries improve the performance of their health system through focused efforts on national quality direction.

The work on NQPS has seen increasing prominence with the launch of three major reports on quality in 2018, each of which call on governments to have a national quality policy and strategy.

There is significant and increasing demand from countries – particularly low and middle-income countries – for technical assistance from WHO to plan and implement national direction on quality. ISQua is working with WHO as an NGO in official relations and has been a key collaborator in the NQPS initiative from its inception.

ISQua has worked with the WHO team to identify experts who can support Ministries of Health on national directions for quality. Under the direction of WHO, selected individuals will provide continued support to countries needing assistance on national directions on quality.

The first wave of experts were hosted in Dublin at the Royal College of Physicians for a 2-day action-oriented workshop in March.

Country requests may require in-country presence and/or extensive and extended remote technical support from these experts.

The workshop produced a cohort of individuals who are equipped to effectively utilise the WHO NQPS Handbook and supplementary resources to provide technical support to the Members States in their national direction on quality.

ISQua looks forward to continuing this journey with WHO in order to support countries.

Photo of the NQPS Participants - 

From Left to Right: Uma Kotagal, Paulo Sousa, Apollo Basenero, Shams Syed, Sepideh Bagheri Nejad, Jason Leitch, Philip Crowley, Bruno Lucet, Matthew Neilson, Nana Mensah Abrampah, David Weakliam.