African governments adopt economic modeling to advocate for health spending

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) has launched a new initiative to help African governments align health spending with economic language used by finance ministries. Through a five-day workshop in Addis Ababa, officials from Botswana, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Togo were trained to build health-focused Social Accounting Matrices.

These economic models aim to demonstrate the quantified investment returns of health spending, shifting the dialogue from traditional metrics like mortality rates to economic outputs, employment, and revenue. This approach is intended to help health ministries present a more robust investment case to finance ministries during budget allocations.

In Togo, for example, the 2026 budget earmarks CFAF 2.7 billion for universal health coverage, representing a small fraction of the total state budget, while households continue to finance approximately two-thirds of health spending.