PHC Policy Tracker

The PHC policy tracker maps policies in low- and middle- income countries, analyzes data about what those policies include, and facilitates cross-country advocacy and learning. The dashboard is designed to provide policymakers, advocates, and donors with data to shape policy dialogues—helping not only to identify strengths and weaknesses of PHC policies in your own country and around the world, but also to learn from others grappling with similar complex policy challenges.

While there is significant momentum for strengthening PHC around the world—accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed how gaps in primary-level care leave health systems vulnerable—there is limited information on what it takes to strengthen PHC systems from a policy perspective.

To fill this gap, PATH undertook a landscaping review of national-level health sector strategies and plans, PHC- or UHC-specific policies, and community health strategies in 30 countries. Our aim was to better understand the PHC policy ecosystem in order to create an up-to-date repository and dashboard about PHC policy documents.

To identify core elements of PHC, PATH drew on key global-level guidance documents from WHO, PHCPI, and others, as well as the experience of our own advocates and technical experts, to develop a scoring rubric with 39 topics sorted into 7 thematic areas. We used this rubric to assess each of the policies we had collected across these topics identified as some of the key elements of a robust PHC policy.