• Home
• What We Do
• Where We Work
• Resources
• News
• Data
• About

Health Costing Tools Technical Workshop

Technical Workshop on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Costing Tools Workshop, January 2008, Senegal

Health Systems 20/20 has been working with the Interagency Working Group on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Costing Tools to review health costing tools and support countries in their use of the tools. In January 2008, the Interagency Working Group supported a technical consultation and workshop in Senegal to assess the usefulness, user friendliness, and relevance of 13 health MDG costing tools. Participants included country users from 18 countries and tool developers. Health Systems 20/20 participated in this workshop, working with WHO and Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) to design the agenda and facilitate the meeting.

The objectives of the consultation were to obtain feedback from users on:

• Choice of tools – criteria used
• How can countries be empowered to manage the process of costing
• Identify possibilities for improvement in the scope and content of the tools and their application, including key features of effective tools and context in which costing is done
• Discuss the development of guidance to assist countries in conducting costing
• Summarize Working Group experience, to hear from users as to what next steps should be, and look toward the future

There were over 30 country participants from approximately 18 countries from Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean; and approximately 20 tool developers/resource persons. Country participants shared their experiences and generated a list of recommendations and "action items" that the Interagency Steering Committee was to consider and act on.

There were many recommendations resulting from the workshop, including the creation of a central location/website or “knowledge center” to support countries in the selection, access, and use of costing tools. Information that would be available on the website include:

• Access to all tools related to health MDGs
• Contact information for tool developers/focal points
• Technical documentation of each of the tools (including assumptions)
• User manuals for each tool
• Technical review reports by Bitran and Associates and PATH
• Report of technical consultation in Senegal
• Compilation of standard data sources and price lists

Another key component of this “knowledge center” would be guidelines on tool selection. The guidelines would help the user specify the questions to be addressed by the costing exercise, describe different types of costing, and help the user select the appropriate tool based on the type of costing to be done and the costing question that needs to be answered.

Health Systems 20/20 continues to work with the Interagency group to develop the guidelines on tool selection. The guidelines, besides helping countries select the most appropriate tool, will advise on using the output of costing excercises for advocacy, planning, and budgeting purposes.

For more information on the Interangency Working Group on MDG Costing Tools and to learn more about the workshop, please click here.