The Consortium aims at addressing the problems of poor access to health services for a vast majority of people in developing countries and catastrophic health expenditures for the poor. One principal avenue to overcome the access deficits and the risk associated with catastrophic health expenditure is the creation and extension of sustainable systems of social health protection (SHP), based on values of universality, equity and solidarity.

The GTZ/ILO/WHO Consortium on Social Health Protection in Developing Countries is an international consortium where member organizations work together to advice developing countries in developing and extending social health protection.

The Consortium is a joint effort to enhance the coordination of the work of the member organizations and to improve effective collaboration at country, regional and global levels in order to:

• increase the coverage, effectiveness and efficiency of sustainable and comprehensive health care financing systems in partner countries
• strengthen technical support by joining resources,
• create synergies and avoid wasteful overlaps of activities through complementary activities