Protocol: How Has Sustainable Development Goals Declaration Influenced Health Financing Reform Processes for Universal Health Coverage at the Country Level? A Systematic Review of Literature

Abstract BackgroundAchieving universal health coverage (UHC) is necessitating reforms in the way countries finance health systems. However, health financing reforms (HFR) are inherently political and SDGs declaration is a political one. Therefore, the terrain where efforts for reforming health financing occurs is likely being influenced by the SDGs declaration. However, how the SDGs have influenced health financing reform processes at the national level, the outcomes of these processes and how stakeholders especially ministries of health are using SDGs to influence reforms towards UHC have not been explored. This review is proposed to provide information and lessons on how SDGs have influence health financing reforms for UHC at national level and identify methodological and empirical gaps in studies exploring the relationship between SDGs and health financing reforms for UHC. MethodsWe propose a systematic review of literature and shall adhere to preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. We shall search 5 databases (Ovid Medline, PubMed, EBSCO, Scopus and Web of Science) and grey literature. Boolean operators “OR” and “AND” will be used to combine the concepts of sustainable development goals and health financing. The literature to be reviewed will be those on health financing reforms (population), one of the factors influencing the reform is SDGs declaration (exposure/intervention), and there is change in a health financing function (outcome). Identification and selection of studies shall be done in duplicate using a predefined tool, the overall process shall be depicted in a PRISMA flow chart. Quality assessment will be conducted using Joanna Biggs Institute checklist. Data shall be managed in NVIVo, where a thematic synthesis of data will be conducted. The results will be presented narratively. DiscussionWe shall share our finding with relevant stakeholders through workshop and publications. The SDGs declaration is relatively new, how it is influencing health financing reforms towards UHC at national level needs to be documented and shared for cross-country learning by stakeholders involved in this area. In addition, the review is anticipated to provide information on the methodological and/or empirical gaps in studies exploring the linkage between SDGs declaration and health systems reforms.