Current Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Health Fellows visited the Centre for Health Economics (CHE) in October to participate in a two-day ‘Mid-Term Conference’ supported by the Thanzi la Onse programme.
The Fellows – consisting of the 2017 and 2018 cohorts – are all currently working as economists for Ministries of Health across Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific region, alongside local civil servants to address major challenges faced by many low- and middle-income country governments.
The Conference – organised by the Health Fellows and hosted by CHE – marked the first opportunity for Fellows to come together since the start of their Fellowships and provided an excellent opportunity to share their experiences, identify the common challenges affecting their host-countries, and learn from one another.
[box]This event was the first opportunity for Fellows to come together since the start of their Fellowships and provided an excellent opportunity to share their experiences, identify the common challenges affecting their host-countries, and learn from one another.[/box]
Key topics discussed included:
- managing national health budgets and fund flows
- coordinating with international donors and implementing donor interventions
- Essential Health Package (EHP) development and implementation
- health financing mechanisms
- health sector human resources
- availability and quality of national health and population data
Thanzi la Onse Theme 2 (Health Economics) researchers were also invited to participate in the Conference to work with Fellows in identifying economic approaches for addressing health care resourcing and delivery challenges. This provided a great opportunity for Thanzi researchers to hear about the Fellows’ experiences and learned from their in-depth understanding of the priorities, barriers and day-to-day practicalities of delivering health care to citizens.
The Conference concluded with the ODI Fellows attending the Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Liverpool, during which they held a parallel meeting involving former-ODI Health Fellows.
Thanzi la Onse was delighted to support this important event, and is committed to supporting similar conferences on an annual basis.
