Brazzaville to host inaugural meeting of African Health Economics Advisory Committee

Brazzaville, 22 November 2004 -- The inaugural meeting of the African Health Economics Advisory Committee (AHEAC) is to take place from 23 to 25 November at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo.

The meeting will discuss and adopt the Committee's terms of reference, develop a 10 year (2006-2015) strategic plan for enhancing health economics capacity in the African Region, and develop an implementation, monitoring and evaluation framework for the regional health economics strategic plan.

AHEAC, made up of eight members appointed in their personal capacities, was constituted by the WHO Regional Director for Africa in March 2004 to provide advice and guidance to the Regional Office on all aspects of health economics including ways of strengthening the capacity of Member States for the generation and utilization of health economics evidence in decision-making.

Other terms of reference of the committee include advising on strategic planning, advocacy, resource mobilization, training and research, information dissemination, and the forging and utilization of partnerships for strengthening health economics capacities in the Region.

Membership of AHEAC, which is expected to meet once in two years, is for an initial duration of four years. The members of the Committee are Professor Evlo Kodjo(Togo), Prof. Mamadou Moustapha Thiam (Senegal), Professor Kamiantako Miyamueni Antoine (Democratic Republic of Congo), Professor Germano Mwabu (Kenya), Professor Di McIntyre(South Africa), Dr Chris Atim (Ghana), Dr. Capela Tepa (Angola) and Dr. Jose Lourei (Mozambique). At this meeting Professors Evlo Kodjo and Di McIntyre are represented by Dr Anani Mensah and Mr Okore Okorafor, respectively.