#08 Universal Health Coverage in Southeast Asia

Informal Economy Podcast: Social Protection

In this month, WIEGO’s Social Protection programme director, Laura Alfers, was in Thailand for the Association of South East Asian Nations People’s Forum, or ASEAN People’s Forum for short, where civil society organizations representatives have gathered, in Bangkok, to prepare for the ASEAN Summit that will happen from 31st of October to November 4th also in Thailand. The regional network of home-based workers, HomeNet South East Asia hosted an event at the People's Forum on their new flagship issue - Universal Health Coverage for Informal Workers. Laura was at that ASEAN People’s forum event, where she has met several of HomeNet South East Asia delegates, and recorded an interview with Suntaree Saeng-Ging for this special episode of our show. Suntaree Saeng-Ging is the Regional Coordinator of HomeNet South East Asia. In this talk with Laura Alfers, she explains how the grass-roots work of HomeNet has been carried out and will provide an overview of the universal health coverage policies in South East Asia. They also discuss some of the main challenges and policies advances in the region to include informal workers on healthcare provision schemes References ASEAN Summit page https://www.asean2019.go.th/en/meeting/35th-asean-summit-and-related-summits/ ASEAN People’s forum page https://www.forum-asia.org/?p=29664 ASEAN People’s forum event page at WIEGO website https://www.wiego.org/events/hnsea-universal-health-coverage-workshop-asean-peoples-forum Towards Universal Health Coverage for Home-Based Worker in Southeast Asia https://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/resources/file/Towards%20Universal%20Health%20Coverage%20for%20Home-Based%20Worker%20in%20Southeast%20Asia.pdf Our theme music is Focus, from A. A. Aalto (Creative Commons)