Despite sending huge sums of money on health every year the African
region's burden of disease is persistently high. Most of the countries
in the region are lagging behind in achieving the health-related United
Nations Millennium Development Goals. The African region's dismal health
situation has largely been blamed on weakness pertaining to such factors
as health leadership and governance; service delivery; health workforce;
medicines, vaccines, and health technologies; health information; and
health system financing that have undermined the capacity of health
systems of countries in the region to improve population health without
wastage of resources. Institutionalising health system efficiency
monitoring, as a basis for the design and implementation of appropriate
policy interventions, has been proposed as an effective way of curbing
wastage of health system inputs. Efficiency of Health System Units in
Africa: A Data Envelopment Analysis is the first book of its kind on
application of the data envelopment analysis technique to examine the
efficiency of health system decision-making units in Africa. The book
interlaces lecture notes with research articles and case studies to
equip students and practitioners of economics, operations research,
management science, and public health with knowledge and skills for
undertaking technical efficiency, cost efficiency, and total factor
productivity analyses.
