On behalf of the Center for Global Development (CGD), I’m pleased to invite you to join a private discussion meeting on the political economy of priority-setting, an effort undertaken by CGD as part of the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI), a global initiative to support decision makers in priority-setting for universal health coverage.
Most analyses of priority-setting in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have focused on technical issues rather than the process, institutions or politics that de facto characterize decisions on budgets and subsidies in the health sector. Yet experience in wealthier countries suggests that knowledge of the political economy of priority-setting can help to structure more effective resource allocation institutions, processes and decisions, through recognizing and managing rather than ignoring competing political and economic interests. In 2012, a CGD report carried out a preliminary inquiry into the political economy of resource allocation decision-making by publicly-funded commissioners, payers and donors in LMIC, but more can be done to assess these challenges and think through how this information can inform iDSI and influence pro-health policies and institutions more broadly.
We hope you will be able to join us for a two day meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 10-11, 2015 at CGD’s office in Washington, DC. Participants will be predominantly composed of researchers, including those with country-level experience in priority-setting. A future meeting will include policymakers.
The objectives of the meeting will be to:
Identify key political economy issues and map leverage points that allow for pro-active management of interests as part of priority-setting;
Inform the template of two country case studies, which will illustrate these issues and missed opportunities for leverage;
Determine coordination of case studies with iDSI’s work on equity/ethics of priority-setting; and
Distill insights and make recommendations to inform iDSI methods, processes and country assistance work.