Investment case for health in Africa
25-26 March 2010 | Nairobi, Kenya - Members of the Harmonization for Health in Africa (HHA) took part in a technical meeting on the development of an investment case for health in Africa. Hosted by the World Bank in Nairobi, 12 staff from UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and the PMNCH discussed the development of a document that best makes the case for effective spending and increased investment for the health MDGs.
The investment case for health in Africa will position health spending as a very high return investment for countries in the region. It will highlight the state of health in Africa and provide a rationale for why investing in health in Africa is important. It will also report on the likely impact on health of known interventions if applied, and will provide scenarios for returns on investment in the region.
HHA aims at launching this publication at the African Union Summit in hopes of obtaining commitments from governments to take on board proposed recommendations
The High Level Taskforce reported in 2009 that reducing the levels of mortality and morbidity of populations and meeting the health MDGs will require a sharp increase in national and international funding and an improvement in spending efficiency, especially in Africa. Health spending has for too long been seen as a cost rather than an investment yielding returns. Misconceptions that health is sufficiently funded through ineffective programs only adds to the reluctance of Ministries of Finance and other key stakeholders to increase national and international health spending.