The African Center of Statistics (ACS) at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) this week opened a five-day workshop for delegates from Botswana, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Togo, aimed at giving health ministries and statistical offices the tools to show, in economic terms, that health spending is an investment, not a cost.
The workshop is the first country level activity under ECA’s broader Transforming Health Financing in Africa initiative, with the five countries as first movers. This week’s session covers one part of it: building health focused Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs), economy wide accounts linking health services, financing, households, government, firms, and the rest of the world. Policymakers often know how much is spent on health but struggle to see the bigger picture: where the money comes from, who benefits, how much employment it generates, and how households are affected. The SAM connects data already spread across national accounts, health accounts, household surveys, and other sources into one coherent picture.
William Muhwava, representing the Director of ACS, said a central aim of the week is to “bring these different sources together within a coherent statistical framework” using each country’s own national data, adding: “We are particularly pleased that this exercise is based on country data, not international data, and national ownership.”
