We call on all African health economists and health policy analysts, those working in Africa or on research of relevance to Africa to attend the Second Conference of the African Health Economics and Policy Association (AfHEA), which will be held in Saly Portudal (Palm Beach), Senegal from 15th to 17th March 2011 (Note: these dates are provisional). The overall theme of this conference is “Toward universal health coverage in Africa”. Universal coverage is understood to mean providing financial protection against health care costs for all, as well as ensuring access to quality health care for all when needed.

The sub-themes of the conference are the following:
• Health care financing for universal financial protection in Africa, including issues around:
o user fee removal
o strategies for improved domestic public funding of health care (through general taxes and/or mandatory health insurance)
o strategies to extend financial protection coverage to those outside the formal employment sector
o reducing fragmentation across funding pools
o the role of global funding in achieving universal coverage
• Promoting universal access to needed health services, including issues around:
o Purchasing of health services (benefit packages and provider payment mechanisms, including performance-based financing)
o Identifying and addressing health service access barriers
• Strategies and tactics for key steps to move towards universal coverage, including issues around:
o Getting universal coverage onto the health policy agenda
o Ensuring the acceptability of policy proposals to different actors
o Managing key actors in implementing universal coverage policies

The above sub-themes are not exhaustive. The conference covers all aspects of the health system that could contribute to universal coverage.