The Institute for Health Policy (IHP) is a registered, non-profit research institute established in 2005 in Sri Lanka. Its mission is to support informed policy making in health and related sectors in Sri Lanka and other countries by undertaking research and other activities.
As a leading regional center of excellence in health policy and financing IHP has supported and been involved in numerous regional collaborations and partnerships; co-founder and secretariat for the Asia-Pacific NHA Network (APNHAN), which brings together experts from 20+ regional territories, has fostered cross-learning within the region and with the OECD, World Bank and others. Conceiver and coordinator of Equitap, a regional network of researchers involved in the comparative analysis of health systems equity. This effectively transferred the model of an existing European network –ECuity – to Asia, and has played a major role in improving methodologies, including field testing World Bank guidelines that are now the measurement of financial protection in global SDG monitoring, and enable regional countries to learn lessons from each other’s performance. Asia-Pacific Network for Health Systems Strengthening (ANHSS) – founder member of a regional network established by World Bank to provide a regional platform for delivery of policy relevant courses in health systems and policies, targeting mid and senior level health sector managers and experts. The Founding hub of the Asia-Pacific Observatory for Health Systems and Policies. Finally, the regional institutional partner to support the P4H Learning for UHC (L4UHC) program in Asia.
IHP’s operating mandate has always been defined to prioritize international work and collaboration, recognizing that Sri Lanka’s own challenges benefit from good understanding of global experience and adoption of global best practice in its own work. Since Sri Lanka’s health systems achievements are also exceptional, this has also led the institution to prioritize global standards of technical excellence, and look beyond the traditional regional boundaries (e.g., South Asia or lower middle-income nations) to work closely with countries across the region, including high middle income and high income health systems.