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Creating Evidence for Better Health Financing Decisions
can support country-level NHA activities by adding value from the perspective of individual countries, including offering the potential to facilitate peer-based learning among member countries, serving as a repository for knowledge and best practices to build institutional capacity, and providing cost-efficient technical expertise. • WHO regional offices. WHO regional offices can support countries by providing technical assistance in NHA production. WHO can offer its own strengths and interest as a producer of internationally comparable health expenditure information. • Regional NHA networks. Regional NHA networks aim to promote regional collaboration and cooperation to establish and maintain NHA activities within the regions. With support from regional agencies, bilateral partners, and regional development banks, six regional networks were established by various bodies from 1997 to 2003: Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa (ECSA), Network of the Americas on Health Accounts (REDACS),Asia-Pacific National Health Accounts Network (APNHAN), Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA), Francophone Africa (FA), and Euro-Asia Network (formerly the Commonwealth of Independent States network) (box 6.3). Furthermore, new sister networks are developing, such as one for the Pacific Islands (Pacific NHA), the sister network of APNHAN. Generally, the networks provide a platform for member countries to discuss experiences and share best practices regarding production. The networks have primarily focused on the production of NHA data; thus, their activities in promoting dissemination and use of the data have been limited. • Regional observatories. Regional observatories have the potential to play a role in supporting country-level institutionalization activities by linking the outputs from the regional NHA networks to policy. The aim is to build on the success of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies in developing similar but unique partnerships in other regions. The observatories aim to bring together highly respected academic institutions to undertake analyses, promote dialogue with key policy makers, and leverage additional funding from other agencies (World Bank 2011). Although still at an early stage of development, the vision for regional observatories is that they may play a role in guiding dissemination and translation of data to affect policy, thereby filling a critical gap in NHA institutionalization activities.