Health interventions in humanitarian crises – where is the health economics?

Abstract: There are an estimated 172 million people worldwide affected by armed conflict, including 59 million people forcefully displaced from their homes as refugees or internally displaced persons. In addition, natural disasters affect around 175 million people annually. Such crises lead to elevated mortality and morbidity through the direct and indirect effects of the crisis. Financial support for humanitarian response has substantially increased over the past two decades, and in 2017 alone there has been an estimated $1.3 billion invested in humanitarian response funds for the health sector. Despite the growing investment, evidence on the effectiveness of humanitarian health interventions is limited. There are also gaps in the use of health economics in these settings which raises concerns over efficiency, equity and accountability in the use of humanitarian aid. This seminar will firstly introduce some key research themes on health responses to humanitarian crises, including the use of health economics. It will then discuss some ways of strengthening the use of health economics in these crises, focusing particularly on economic evaluation and health care financing. It will conclude with some suggestions for how to strengthen the use of health economics in humanitarian crises. The focus will be on low- and middle-income countries.