As the COVID-19 pandemic is evolving, a growing number of countries are making use of information derived from mathematical models in policy and public communication. In a review conducted as of March 2020, 31 COVID-19 models were identified, with different objectives, methods and data/results reported in the public domain. The type of models employed by the countries vary but we …
60 seconds with… Patric Landin
iDSI caught up with Patric Landin, regional advisor for Sida’s (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights team, ahead of the Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR) in Liverpool next week. A HSR 2018 satellite session, which will focus on health financing towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), has received funding from Sida, working on behalf …
Indian public health budget allocation announced today at 20% lower than expected: Is the Government justified in not increasing the budget in line with Ministry of Health requests?
The government of India has today approved a three-year budget for its flagship public health programme, the National Health Mission. At $20billion, this budget is almost 20 percent lower than what the health ministry said was needed, according to documents reviewed by Reuters India. This leaves the potential increase of funding to the health system at 2.5% GDP from the …
Towards HTA in the Philippines: iDSI welcomes passage of new Congress UHC Bill
September 6th 2017, the Philippines’ lower house of Congress approved the Universal Health Coverage Bill, introducing key reforms to improve population coverage, reform provider payment, and strengthen health technology assessment (HTA) implementation, among others. It has been 15 years since HTA was introduced in the Philippines through the efforts of dedicated key individuals. This development marks a crucial step towards …
Implementing a sugar tax in South Africa
Why should South Africa welcome a sugar tax? Professor Karen Hofman explains how a sugary beverage tax could reduce diabetes and obesity in South Africa in her recent lecture at Imperial College London. As part of a Global Health & Development lecture, Professor Karen Hofman discussed the research evidence that informed the tax on sugary beverages in South Africa, to …
Monitoring Value for Money of donor expenditure: learning lessons from the iDSI Reference Case
How do donors in international development make sure they are not wasting money? Doing so is harder than it may initially seem. Money is spent thousands of miles away from headquarters, in settings where information is poor, politics complex and staff turnover rapid. In practice, many use Value for Money (VfM) analysis to try and stay on top of this …
Using evidence to inform policy and practice in healthcare in Jordan
In March 2009, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), with the support of the World Bank, run a three-day technical workshop and strategic policy meeting for senior Jordanian health policy makers. The aim of this event was to provide an outline of the basic principles and methods for health technology assessment (HTA) and best clinical practice …