We deliver high quality health economics and health system modelling research evidence to help improve population health in Malawi, Uganda and the wider East and West Africa regions.
The Thanzi Programme represents a collection of research projects and initiatives, which share the goal of supporting health decision making across Africa to build more equitable and resilient health systems.
All our research is informed by the policy priorities of national decision makers, and provides the evidence needed to allocate healthcare resources where they can have the most impact on the ground.
Our research ambitions align with the commitments set-out by the African Union’s African Leadership Meeting Declaration (ALM Declaration): to improve health financing across the continent.
Research Themes
- Intervention choice and health benefit package design
- Economics of health system constraints - Informing cross-cutting investments in health care systems as well as in the direct delivery of clinical interventions
- Determinants of health and intersectoral allocation - Investigating how population health care can be improved through means other than health care delivery, and how this should be funded
- Markets and incentives, and the economics of healthcare provision - Ensuring delivery of the right kinds of health care through activities such as embedding incentives within health care systems, using insights from industrial organisations
- Macroeconomics of health
- Prioritisation of research activities. Informing the design of research and evidence generation activities that are most likely to lead to health improvement and reduction in population health inequalities
- Health system and disease modelling
Thanzi Programme Research Projects
Integrated analysis of health system capabilities and effects on population health in Malawi and Eastern, Central and Southern Africa
In response to the need for more evidence to support resource allocation decision making processes in Malawi, researchers and modellers at Imperial College London and University College London have partnered with Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS) in Malawi to develop a ‘whole system and all-disease model’ for the Malawi health system. Development of the Thanzi Model began during the Thanzi la Onse (Health of All) project, during which version 0 was designed and built.
The Thanzi Model is the first of its kind in the world. Most models illustrate a single disease or section of a country’s health system, but the Thanzi Model simulates the entire national health system and population of Malawi. Data collected includes information about the population’s experience of disease, encounters with the health care system, and the effects on their health of the health care they receive. Modellers then use these data to simulate how different investment decisions will affect the country’s entire health system and population.
Since 2022, the Thanzi la Mawa project has sought to advance the Thanzi Model and begin to extend the Model to other country settings.
Funder: The Wellcome Trust
Lead research institute: Imperial College London (Prof. Tim Hallett, Prof. Tim Colbourn, Dr. Asif Tamuri)
Collaborating institutes: Collaborating institutes: ECSA Health Community (Edward Kataika); Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Prof. Joseph Mfutso-Bengo, Prof. Victor Mwapasa, Dr. Dominic Nkhoma); University College London (Prof. Andrew Phillips, Prof. Tim Colbourn, Dr. Asif Tamuri); University of Glasgow (Prof. Amelia Crampin); University of York (Prof. Martin Chalkley, Prof. Paul Revill)
Project duration: April 2022 - March 2026
To read more about the Thanzi Model and access the open source version 1.0, please visit the Thanzi Model webpage.
Further reading: ‘Timothy Hallett - HIV’ podcast
Tools and evidence to address neglected tropical diseases in East and Southern Africa
The Thanzi Labwino (Better Health) project was launched in 2023 to support cost effective and equitable investments in disease elimination, as well as to help facilitate policy engagement and capability building in the West, East, Central and Southern Africa regions.
During the Thanzi la Onse (Health of All) project, the research team developed a number of advanced health economics analysis methods to inform health resource allocation decision making. Thanzi Labwino aims to apply these methods to the questions of disease elimination, including assessing the feasibility of prioritising elimination in health systems which have limited resources and high disease burdens. The project also seeks to generate more economic and modelling evidence on neglected tropical diseases, including integrating Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), into the Thanzi Model and facilitating a regional dialogue on addressing NTDs and disease elimination.
Funder: Global Institute for Disease Elimination
Lead research institute: University of York (Prof. Paul Revill, Sakshi Mohan, Megha Rao, Prof. Simon Walker)
Collaborating institutes: ECSA Health Community (Edward Kataika, Dr. Finn McGuire); Imperial College London (Prof. Tim Hallett, Dr. Sayara Ahmed, Dr. Tara Mangal, Dr. Hugo Turner)
Project duration: December 2022 - February 2026
Further reading: ‘Thanzi blog post’ "Thanzi Programme launches new distance learning studentships to strengthen access to postgraduate training in health economics"
Thanzi Programme Associated Research Projects
In 2025, a network of health economics postgraduate training providers came together to collaborate on strengthening health economics capability and capacity building across Africa and Europe. The HEPI Project aims to integrate the latest research evidence into health economics training programmes designed to upskill existing researchers and policy-makers, and equip the next generation with the skills and knowledge required to make health resource allocation decisions. As part of the HEPI Project, the Health Economics Community of Practice - first established by the ECSA Health Community in the Thanzi la Onse project - will be expanded, and a sister Community of Practice established in the West Africa region.
Funder: European Commission
Lead research institute: University of Bergen (Prof. Bjarne Robberstad; Dr. Melf-Jakob Kühl)
Collaborating institutes: Addis Ababa University (Prof. Damen Gebrekiros; Dr. Alemayehu Hailu); East African Community (Regina Ombam); ECSA Health Community (Edward Kataika); ELIXIR (Korbinian Bösl); Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (Dr. Dominic Nkhoma); Makerere University School of Public Health (Prof. Freddie Ssengooba; Dr. Elizabeth Ekirapa; Dr. Chrispus Mayora); Muhimbili University of Health & Allied Sciences (Prof. Amani Mori); Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Prof. Adama Faye); University of Ghana (Dr. Ama Pokuaa Fenny; Dr. Emmanuel Ankrah Odame); University of York (Prof. Paul Revill, Dr. James Lomas, Dr. Mathilde Péron, Prof. Luigi Siciliani; Prof. Helen Weatherly); West African Health Organization (Prof. Issiaka Sombie; Mr. Ali Sani)
Project duration: January 2025 - December 2027
Eswatini is one of the few countries in the world to surpass the UNAIDS “95-95-95” goals with respect to diagnosing and treating its population with HIV. This has seen the rate of HIV and associated mortality drop rapidly. While HIV remains the leading cause of death in Eswatini, it is now closely followed by cardiovascular disease. The Ministry of Health aims to address this changing disease burden by integrating treatment of cardiovascular disease and other high-burden conditions, with its HIV health services.
The project uses epidemiological and health system modelling, as well as health economics, to assess which health services would generate the most health when co-delivered with Eswatini’s existing HIV care. Methods in health benefit package design, first developed under the Thanzi la Onse project, are also being used to understand which health services should be prioritised for resourcing by the Ministry of Health.
Funder: National Institutes of Health
Lead research institute: New York University, Grossman School of Medicine (Prof. Anna Bershteyn; Dr. Kasturi Bhamidipati; Dr. Daniel Citron; Dr. David Kaftan; Dr. Hae-Young Kim; Dr. Masabho Milali; Dr. Nao Yamamoto)
Collaborating institutes: ECSA Health Community (Edward Kataika, Dr. Finn McGuire); Ministry of Health (Ntombifuthi Ginindza; Zanele Nxumalo); University of Eswatini (Dr. Sotja Dlamini; Prof. Priscilla Dlamini; Dr. Bonisile Nsibandze; Dr. Ajay Singh; Nokuphila Thabede); University of York (Prof. Paul Revill; Sakshi Mohan)
Project duration: May 2023 - April 2027