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 Obtaining Funding
Funding for the creation of health accounts comes from a variety
of sources. In some countries, national governments—typically
policy units within the Ministry of Health—have devoted staff time
and materials to execute annual or one-time estimates of public and
private spending. In others, this work has been done under the
auspices of externally-financed projects and programs. In
collaboration with national governments, PAHO, IADB, USAID, and
World Bank have all financed health accounts exercises in Latin
American and Caribbean countries over the past 10 years.
In some cases countries find creative ways to fund health
accounts exercises. For example in Costa Rica, the Ministry of
Health and The Central Bank have been able to jointly conduct
estimations by contributing two days per month of staff time. Other
examples will be added here in the future.
Cost of Health
Accounts Studies
The cost of preparing health accounts
varies greatly, depending primarily on the quantity and quality of
available data sources, and on the number of staff involved. The
most important determinant of the cost is whether reasonable
estimates of private spending can be obtained from existing
household surveys. If information on household spending is recent
and of reasonable quality, a typical first-time health expenditure
exercise in the Latin America and Caribbean region can be completed
for less than US$100,000. If, on the other hand, a household survey
has to be conducted to obtain reliable and up-to-date estimates of
private spending, costs can rise to US$2 million or higher,
depending on the many factors that affect the survey’s cost
(number of households surveyed, cost of interviewers’ and field
supervisors’ time, length of survey, difficulty and cost of
transport, etc.). |
| Organizations |
| Premio
José Luis Bobadilla de Políticas de Salud |
The José Luis Bobadilla Health Policies Prize has been
created to stimulate research in health policy and into the
health system reform processes in Latin America and the
Caribbean. Deadline for submissions has been extended to
the 30th of June 2004. Invitation for Submissions is
available in PDF
or MS Word
format.
|
| Latin
America and Caribbean Regional Health Sector Reform Initiative
(LACHSR) |
LACHSR provides technical
assistance to design, implement and monitor national health
sector reform processes in an effort to increase equitable
access to basis health services. It addresses issues of human
resources developments; steering role strengthening; essential
public health functions; and extension of social protection in
health.
|
| Inter-American
Development Bank (IADB) |
Headquartered in Washington, DC,
IADB supports economic and social development and regional
integration in Latin America and the Caribbean. It does so
mainly through lending to public institutions, but it also
funds some private projects, typically in infrastructure and
capital markets development. |
| Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO) |
This international public health
agency headquartered in Washington, DC. serves as the
specialized organization of the inter-American system for
health and as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World
Health Organization. |
| United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) |
An independent government agency
that provides economic development and humanitarian assistance
to advance U.S. economic and political interests overseas. It
works in partnership with other organizations in participatory
development activities. |
| The
Wellcome Trust, UK |
The Wellcome Trust's Health Consequences
of Population Change programme focuses on the
inter-relationship between health outcomes and demographic,
socio-economic and lifestyle changes taking place in less
developed countries. It has launched Major
Awards to Centres of Excellence in Latin America
research funding initiative in order to:
- Support research into issues that are
of major public health significance in Latin American
countries;
- Enhance collaboration between institutions and between
social and biomedical sciences to address the changing
dynamics in society and its impact on health;
- Strengthen research capacity and relevant training
opportunities through research and collaborations in the
region;
- Establish and develop local and regional links. The deadline
for submission of applications is in November. |
| World
Bank (WB) |
It is a development Bank which
provides loans, policy advice, technical assistance and
knowledge sharing services to low and middle income countries
to reduce poverty. |
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