We facilitate greater collaboration between researchers and policymakers in Africa, to ensure that research is co-designed to address local health needs and inform real world health decision making.
Working closely with ministries of health, ministries of finance and public universities across East, Central, Southern and West Africa, Thanzi is facilitating more opportunities for researchers and policymakers to engage on priority health questions and jointly find solutions and tools to address in-country health financing challenges.
Our platforms offer opportunities for open discussion, knowledge sharing and upskilling on policy needs and research evidence: enabling researchers and policymakers to better ‘speak the same language’ when addressing health challenges.
Not only is this engagement helping to streamline the process of designing and delivering research, it also enables research and policy making communities to work more closely together and co-design future health sector strategic plans to support the move towards Universal Health Coverage.
Thanzi Programme Research & Policy Engagement Projects
The Malawi Health Economics & Policy Unit (HEPU) and Uganda Health Economics & Policy Program (HEPP) have both been highlighted as gold standard examples of ways to facilitate greater research-and-policy engagement.
Based at national public universities (Kamuzu University for Health Sciences, Malawi and Makerere School of Public Health, Uganda), the units serve as a meeting place where researchers from national public universities and policy-makers from ministries of health and finance can share research findings, and work towards co-designing policy-informed research agendas. They have a uniquely strong and influential relationship with decision makers, yet enjoy the benefits of working as independent research institutes with the authority to advise politicians.
Since their establishment in 2018 and 2020 respectively, the HEPU and HEPP have contributed directly to health resource allocation decisions made at national level. Several high level Think Tank and Policy Lab meetings have been held in Malawi, convening key stakeholders and decision makers to discuss major health challenges and response strategies. The units have also led major health projects, including the development of a health technology assessment framework for Malawi and a health benefit package for community health care in Uganda.
Inspired by the successes of these units, a series of concept notes have been developed to scope out the benefits of establishing similar units in Eswatini, The Gambia, Ghana, Senegal and Zimbabwe.
Read more about the Malawi Health Economics & Policy Unit and watch the summaries of the Policy Think Tanks.
Further reading:
‘Thanzi blog post’ "Thanzi la Onse supports the establishment of a Health Economics, Policy and Ethics (HEPE) Think Tank and Policy Lab in Malawi"
‘Thanzi blog post’ "The Extraordinary HEPU Think Tank Meeting"
The East, Central and Southern Africa Health Economics Community of Practice (ECSA HE-COP) is a network of researchers from national public universities and policymakers from national Ministry of Health planning departments who convene annually to share knowledge, undertake health economics training, and co-design research agendas for the region.
This network has been particularly impactful in enabling all parties to discuss the political, structural and financial challenges being experienced across the region, and successfully translate this knowledge into practical, contextually-relevant recommendations and solutions.
Plans are in development to establish a second HE-COP in west Africa, led by Thanzi in partnership with the West African Health Organization (WAHO).
Further reading:
‘Thanzi blog post’ "Research-to-policy partnerships: future plans for extending TLO’s approach in the ECSA and West Africa regions"
‘Thanzi blog post’ "Thanzi la Onse research informs African Union-led health financing dialogues in five ECSA countries"