Thanzi la Onse (Health of All)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUooXA-IZJo

Primary Investigators: Professor Mark Sculpher (Principal Investigator), Professor Martin Chalkley Paul Revill, Alex Rollinger, Laure Bedecarrax (Centre for Health Economics, University of York) Professor Jean Grugel, Dr Peg Murray-Evans (Politics, University of York), Dr Alan Msosa (IGDC, University of York)

External Collaborators: Imperial College London; UCL, Overseas Development Institute; ODI, Malawi College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Public Health Institute of Malawi, MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS, and the Center for Global Development (Washington)

Funder: Health of All

Thanzi La Onse Website: https://thanzi.org/

Thanzi la Onse (Health of All) is 4-year project aimed designing a locally led analytical model to inform decision making and policy in the allocation of health care resources to improve population health and reduce health inequalities in eastern and southern Africa. This model will address the challenges faced by the region when deciding how health care is financed, organized and provided to their population to ensure ‘value for money’ in the face of limited financial, human and material resources. Ultimately, the project will contribute to the implementation of strategies towards meeting the sustainable development goal on universal health coverage.  

The project will initially be implemented in Malawi and Uganda through specific short-term outcomes which include the design of an ambitious ‘whole system and all-disease model’ to inform Malawi government’s health care policy and decision making, and enhanced capabilities in health modelling and policy engagement for Malawi and Uganda. It will also seek to enhance research collaboration between UK and African researchers in addressing challenges constraining effective health care resource management.  

The project will invest in understanding the context in which the interventions will be delivered to ensure that systems of funding delivery of health care aligns with the potential impact of effective policy implementation.

In the long-term, the model will be introduced other nations in southern and eastern Africa to adapt resource allocation methods and strategies to support reforms in health care decision-making about resource allocation.

The challenges to be addressed lies at the intersection of health, economics and politics. The project realises inter-disciplinary complementarities by bringing together expertise from fields of epidemiology, health economics, politics and governance. It is led by the University of York (Centre for Health Economics and Department of Politics and International Relations) in collaboration with the Imperial College London; UCL, Overseas Development Institute; ODI, Malawi College of Medicine, University of Malawi, Public Health Institute of Malawi, MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit on AIDS, and the Center for Global Development (Washington).

The project is funded by the UK government through the Research Councils UK as part of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) on ‘Growing research capability to meet the challenges faced by developing countries’, valued at £6,658,46 million running from October 2017 to December 2021.