Brazzaville, 24 November 2004 -- African governments have been urged to come to terms with the emerging global consensus that there is a direct link between health and development.

"Our governments should accept the basic diagnostic point that good health is an integral part of development", WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Samba, told the inaugural meeting of the African Health Economics Advisory Committee (AHEAC) which got underway Tuesday in Brazzaville, republic of Congo.

"A healthy people are a productive people, yet the idea that health is a part of productivity is slow to catch on", Dr samba said. " Tackling health problems should be part of the economic development equation which could help our countries achieve sustainable development".

Dr Samba stated that "the time is now ripe for African governments to examine the key role of Ministers of Finance to see how adequate financial allocations to the health sector could be ensured for adequate health care.

He argued that good health and economic prosperity seemed to go together because healthy people could more easily earn an income, afford and seek medical care, and have better nutrition and more freedom to lead healthier lives.

He also said that the view that health was "all about disease, and the exclusive domain of health professionals" had changed radically over the past four decades, pointing out that non-health professionals, including economist, could and should play a role in structuring and analyzing data that facilitate the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health interventions. …/2 In his remarks, the Adviser on Health Economics in the WHO Africa Region, Dr Josses Kirigia, stated that the growing importance and recognition of the use of economic tools to compare and prioritize health interventions in the region had been demonstrated by the exponential increase in the number of health economists in the Regional and Country Offices in the past decade: from one at the Regional Office in 1995 to seven by mid-2004; and from five in country offices prior to 1999 to 20 this year.

There are currently six economics programmes at the Regional Office. Prior to 1999, there was none. These economics programmes are involved in the preparation of economics-related documents for WHO Regional Committee meetings, the development of guidelines, the generation and dissemination of evidence for health policy, the organization of workshops, and support to Regional Health Economics training institutions in examining dissertations.

One of the principal briefs of the eight-member Committee is to develop a 10-year (2006-2015). It will also develop an implementation, monitoring and evaluation framework for the regional health economics strategic plan.

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