Internationally set goals and guidelines directly influ­ence the setting of health care priorities at the national level, affecting how limited resources are generated and allocated across health care needs. The influence of global priority setting, such as through the formu­lation of overarching goals or normative guidelines for specific disease areas, is particularly significant in low- and middle-income countries that rely heavily on overseas development assistance. Because no sys­tematic approach exists for dealing with resource con­straints, however, which vary across countries, goals and guidance are often inappropriate for some country contexts; their implementation can, therefore, reduce the efficiency and equity of health care spending.

The Working Group on Incorporating Economics and Modelling in Global Health Goals and Guidelines, co-convened by the Center for Global Development, Thanzi la Onse, and the HIV Modelling Consortium, has brought together disease specialists, policymakers, economists, and modelers from national governments, international organizations, and academic institutions across the globe to address these issues, to take stock of current approaches, and make recommendations for better practice. The Working Group deliberated on the roles and purposes of goals and guidelines and consid­ered how economic evidence might be formally incor­porated into policy recommendations and health care decision making. The target audiences for this report are international health institutions, large stakehold­ers in disease programs across the world, and national governments.

The Working Group has established core principles and accompanying recommendations for policymak­ers seeking to support national governments in setting locally relevant priorities. The report also offers rec­ommendations to international organizations—in particular, the World Health Organization (WHO)—on the appropriate use of economic analysis in the develop­ment of international guidelines.

The principles and recommendations emphasize the importance of recognizing local context and enabling and strengthening the capacity of national govern­ments to set priorities locally. They also stress the strengths and limitations of international WHO guidelines; the value of epidemiological modeling and eco­nomic assessment to guiding policy under resource constraints; the importance of good-quality epidemiological and economic data to inform country decision making; and the benefits of increased inter-agency and intergovernmental cooperation, accountability, trans­parency, and information sharing.

Report by the Centre for Global Development