New Paper: “The Informal Sector and Universal Health Coverage: Crucial Considerations”

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future has published a new paper in its Issues in Brief series. The paper, titled “The Informal Sector and Universal Health Coverage: Crucial Considerations,” was written by Lawrence Were, a Pardee Center Faculty Associate and an Assistant Professor in both BU’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and School of Public Health.

Informal employment operating outside the legal and regulatory frameworks of the modern economy is a major challenge across the developing world, resulting in poor pay, lack of benefits, and lack of industry regulations. In particular, informality has critical implications for access to health insurance and to quality, affordable care. In this Issues in Brief, Were focuses on Kenya, where the informal sector accounts for 34 percent of GDP and 74 percent of employment, to better understand the confluence between informality and health. He concludes that Kenya and other developing countries must better measure the impacts of the informal sector on health insurance coverage, in particular, and better support research and innovation to achieve the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 3) calling for universal health coverage for all by 2030.

Click here to download the PDF. Hard copies are free and can be requested by sending an email to pardee@bu.edu.