The need for health-economics capacity in Africa

By Isaac Twumasi Quantus in Accra.

The lack of financial and other resources to provide efficient and equitable health services is a key challenge confronting many health systems in Africa. Government resources are particularly limited: the health-sector share of total government expenditure is below 10%.

This is despite the Abuja 2001 commitment by African heads of state that 15% of government funds would be devoted to the health sector. There is heavy reliance on donor funding, this provides over 25% of total health-care funding in about 35% of countries.

Given the global focus on poverty reduction, out-of-pocket payments’ status as one of the single largest sources of financing is possibly the greatest concern. More than half of all health-care expenditure is funded through out-of-pocket payments.

There is growing recognition that out-of-pocket payments place a considerable burden on households, restrict access to health services among poorer people and threaten the livelihoods of vulnerable households that seek and bear the costs of health care.

There are more examples of the potential application of health-economics analyses within African health systems but already this discussion has presented a convincing argument for health economics capacity within African countries.

This requires capacity to undertake applied health economics analyses of health policy and planning challenges. There is also a critical need for capacity to develop conceptual and methodological approaches to health-economics analysis that are relevant to the African context.

Academic institutions can play a key role in developing cutting-edge conceptual and methodological approaches, appropriate to the African context, for health-economics analyses. A major constraint is the complete lack of funding for conceptual research activities.

It has been recognized that there is a current global focus on, and interest in, strengthening health systems research. Health economics is a component of this so it may be useful to raise awareness of its potential contribution as an integral part of high-level advocacy around health-systems research in Africa.

 

This article was originally posted on Sustainable Development Africa Platform

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