NHA in Cote d'Ivoire
National Health Accounts (NHA) are a rigorous, comprehensive, and internationally comparable analysis of a country's health financing landscape that is use to inform policy and advocacy efforts. Health Systems 20/20 is currently supporting the implementation of NHA in Cote d'Ivoire to provide data on general and HIV/AIDS-specific health expenditures for the years 2007 and 2008.
Health financing evidence contributes to improved performance of health systems and informed decision-making in the health sector. Financing information is an essential input for strengthening policies to improve health systems functioning.It also contributes to the measurement of the outcomes of the system and the factors that explain these outcomes. What distinguishes NHA from other forms of health expenditure review is that it provides:
- Rigorous classification of the types and purposes of expenditures and of the actors in the health system including households, public and private sector providers, NGOs, etc.
- Complete accounting of all spending for health, regardless of the origin, destination, or object of the expenditure
- Rigorous approach to collecting, cataloging, and estimating those flows of money
- A structure intended for institutionalized, ongoing analysis as opposed to one-time study
NHA data are presented using a set of international standard tables in which various aspects of a nation’s health expenditures are described. The NHA standard tables have been designed to provide health expenditure information to policymakers in ways that can be clearly and directly linked to a country’s health policy financing concerns and issues.
Some of the key questions for which policymakers need answers to establish sound stewardship include: How are resources mobilized for the health system? How are resources managed? How are health funds distributed across the different services and activities? Who benefits from public and private health funding?
To answer these questions and many more, NHA has been designed around the concept of the flow of financing in the health system. The flow of financing concept highlights an important aspect of NHA. Financial resources flow through the health system over time and may be enabling different health system activities at different points in time. Describing the composition of these funds at different points in the flow of financing is what allows NHA to address so many useful policy questions.
Specifically within Cote d'Ivoire, NHA data will be very important for improving the public health budgeting process, identifying underfunded health sectors where PEPFAR Partnership Framework resources should be devoted, and increasing the overall health value for money invested in the health sector.
Health Systems 20/20 at Work in Cote d'Ivoire
Cote d'Ivoire
