Addis ababa: The African Center of Statistics (ACS) at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has launched a comprehensive workshop aimed at equipping delegates from Botswana, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Togo with the tools to economically evaluate health spending as an investment rather than a cost. This initiative is part of the broader Transforming Health Financing in Africa project, marking the first country-level activity involving these four nations. According to African Press Organization, the five-day workshop is focused on constructing health-focused Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs), which are economy-wide accounts that connect various stakeholders such as health services, financing bodies, households, government entities, firms, and international actors. The SAMs serve to consolidate data from national accounts, health accounts, household surveys, and other sources, providing a unified perspective on health spending. The ECA aims to address the gap in understanding where health fu nds originate, who benefits, the employment it generates, and its impact on households. William Muhwava, representing the Director of ACS, emphasized the importance of utilizing each country's national data within a coherent statistical framework. He highlighted the significance of basing the exercise on country-specific data to ensure national ownership of the outcomes. The workshop features participation from health ministries and national statistical offices, supported by resource persons from ECA and the World Health Organization (WHO). Aboubakari Diaw, Chief of Staff at ECA, inaugurated the workshop by emphasizing that health should be viewed as an economic investment, aligning with the mandate set by African Ministers of Finance in Tangier last April. Diaw pointed out that finance ministers require structured projects to finance and that the initiative addresses the need for a clear economic rationale for health investments, especially as fiscal constraints tighten across the continent. Kinsley Addai Frimpong from WHO Ethiopia also addressed the participants, underscoring health financing as a fundamental component of WHO's health system framework. He noted the integration of national health accounts into the SAM as a meaningful way to incorporate health data into national economic accounts. By the conclusion of the workshop, each participating country is expected to produce an initial health-disaggregated SAM, identifying assumptions, data gaps, and balancing choices. This work will continue to evolve within the larger project framework until 2028. The organizers stressed the importance of peer learning and collaboration among participants to address shared challenges in data availability and application.
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