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Creating Evidence for Better Health Financing Decisions
designation of a home for health resource tracking data at the cornerstone of policy making. Given that the MOH is not the custodian or owner of the NHA process, it may be difficult to translate insights from NHA data to affect health policy.
Model 4. Not Mandated by Government This model involves NHA produced by an independent research agency with limited or no government collaboration. Some governance structures place the home of the NHA process entirely outside of government. The external entity may have limited or no formal links to government. In this model, data collection and production are conducted entirely by the external team, along with oversight, management, and quality assurance. Translation and dissemination of the data and its use to inform policy may, in each case, be the responsibility of the external team or government. Potential strengths of this model are as follows: • An independent research agency model may suggest greater objectivity in the execution and analysis of data. • Through wide dissemination of results, externally mandated NHA activities can assist in holding country leaders accountable for their targets or in showcasing results to bring awareness of key findings to the government—particularly in areas where it has previously lacked interest. • The independent research agency may also have strong technical or health expertise, depending on the personnel on the team. • Minimal bureaucracy in the independent research agency may increase the speed of production. Potential challenges of this model are as follows: • An externally housed NHA process raises issues of sustainability, particularly if the external entity loses the interest or ownership of the NHA process. • Results may fail to be validated by the MOH or other agencies providing data input. • Without the ability to validate the data, this model is likely to result in limited ownership of the process by the MOH or other government entities, thereby limiting the demand for data to inform policy.