The Regional Health Economics, Policy, and Systems (RHEPS) has been launched in Ghana.

It was undertaken by the Department of Health Policy Planning and Management at the School of Public Health at the University of Ghana, in collaboration with the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

These hubs aim to enhance capacity at both national and regional levels for producing, consolidating, and applying evidence related to health economics and financing in the decision-making and policy formulation for healthcare resource allocation.

At the September 29 event held at the university, the Dean of the School of Public Health highlighted that the primary objective of these hubs is to fortify the ability to generate, synthesize, and utilize health economics and financing evidence in healthcare resource allocation and policy.

Prof Kwasi Torpey further emphasized that the hubs also endeavor to bolster capacity in mathematical, epidemiological, economic, and geospatial modeling to support decision-making.

According to him, the new centres will "work in collaboration with their respective Ministries of Health in both countries to ensure that the evidence produced is responsive to the policymakers’ evidence needs and relevant to their decision context which in turn will enhance evidence uptake in policy-making."

Another mandate will be to develop and operationalize contextualized economic-epidemiological-demographic-and Geospatial models to inform priority-setting decisions about SRH, MNCH, NCDs and other health services in Ghana and potentially within countries in Africa, while working closely with policy and program implementers to enhance evidence uptake in policy making and implementation.

Additionally, the provision of a platform for policy maker-researchers engagement forum to facilitate open discussion and identification of enablers and barriers to effective engagement between Ghana and the Rwanda Team to come up with action plans on how the two countries intend to address the identified barriers and to capitalize on and sustain the enablers.

The event was also addressed by the Director of Public Health, Ghana Health Service Dr Asiedu Bekoe.

In his remarks at the event, Dr Bekoe emphasized the significance of the RHEPS Hubs, which are set to evolve into regional hubs, bolstering in-country and regional capacities to generate essential health economics and policy insights.

The Director underlined the pivotal role of the Public Health Division within the Ghana Health Service. This division plays a critical role in developing and implementing policies and strategic plans that safeguard and enhance public health, ultimately contributing to the socio-economic well-being of families and communities.

Reflecting on the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Director acknowledged a critical gap in the understanding of the economics, financing, and evaluation of public health interventions and plans. He stressed the need for high-quality, policy-relevant evidence to inform decisions regarding public health interventions and plans.

"During the response, the GHS worked with the School of Public Health to develop and use modelling in our work. In view of this, the Public Health Division see tremendous opportunity in these Regional Health Economics, Policy, and Systems Hubs to support in the costing of national, regional and continental public health security plans and interventions and develop integrated models that will be key to our preparedness and response to current and future public health threats."

Dr Bekoe further expressed his readiness to work together with the the hubs "to support our activities with high quality, evidence-based policies to enhance our work."