Evidence and lessons on health technology assessment and health benefit packages in the WHO African Region
Making difficult choices with limited budgets and ambitious objectives is inevitable for health care decision-makers everywhere. Prioritization takes place in all health systems, implicitly or explicitly, but rational, explicit, evidence-informed priority setting has long been recognized as the preferred approach for robust, legitimate decisions that can further health system objectives.
The need to implement such priority-setting processes – health technology assessment (HTA) being a prominent example – as part of the universal health coverage (UHC) strategy has already been acknowledged among Member States of the WHO African Region. This need has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent recovery effort, which has been straining many health systems in the African Region and has increased the pressure to sustain progress towards UHC with even more constrained resources.