KOMPAS - Kosovo Comprehensive Approach to Health System Strengthening

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The project seeks to strengthen key building blocks of the system (PPR/public health, service delivery, and health financing), as well as develop a cross-cutting integrated health information system that will support all of these building blocks. The building blocks were selected based on their importance for strengthening inputs and processes to quality of care, for the ultimate goal of improving the health status of the population, gaps in the current situation in Kosovo, and the World Bank’s comparative advantage. The PPR/public health interventions will focus on two critical areas of PPR (HAI and AMR) which, unlike most other PPR interventions, have a direct impact on the quality of clinical care in Kosovo. Service delivery interventions include strengthening quality assurance and quality management capacity and utilization, improving the technical base for health service delivery, and improving health care waste management, which is also related to reducing HAI. Health financing interventions will enhance the ability to conduct strategic purchasing of high-quality services. The focus on information systems is a cross-cutting issue that is essential to all other aspects of the project since they all rely on improved collection and sharing of health information. Kosovo has made considerable progress over the past decades but continues to face social, economic, and political vulnerabilities. It consolidated the functioning of its democratic institutions of government, held free and peaceful elections, and built legal frameworks to respect the rights of different ethnic and religious communities. However, the World Bank 2021 Risk and Resilience Assessment identified three main risks: (1) contested statehood, linked to regional geopolitical uncertainty; (2) economic and political disenfranchisement, particularly among youth; and (3) institutional weakness in the rule of law that hampers investment of public resources to build human and physical capital. The project is well aligned with the recently approved Country Partnership Framework (May 9, 2023). The project will contribute to Higher Level Objective #1 (Greater Public Service Efficiency and Quality), by improving the efficiency and quality of publicly financed health services, the efficiency of existing financing mechanisms, and the degree of equity in financial protection in health, including for marginalized groups. The project will also contribute to the cross-cutting objective of resilience by strengthening the capacity of Kosovo in pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.