Policymakers' perspective on the importance of procedural fairness to implement and sustain health financing reforms.

Fair process is instrumental to implementing and sustaining health financing reforms. Ensuring a fair process during the design and adoption phases can garner political capital and secure a sense of citizens' ownership. This will prove useful when reforms are contested before benefits are yet to be fully materialized. Since many well devised health financing reforms are vulnerable to being dismantled after a few years of being launched, fair process should play a more strategic role in the implementation and evaluation phases when policies get challenged and reformulated to reflect the changing political and socioeconomic landscapes and to better manage early evidence on performance.

Costing of HIV services, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania

Objective To evaluate resource allocation and costs associated with delivery of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) services in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. Methods We used time-driven activity-based costing to determine the resources consumed and costs of providing five HIV services in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania: antiretroviral therapy (ART); HIV testing and counselling; prevention of mother-to-child transmission; voluntary male medical circumcision; and pre-exposure prophylaxis. Findings Country-based teams undertook time-driven activity-based costing with 1119 adults in Uganda and 886 adults in the United Republic of Tanzania. In Uganda, service delivery costs ranged from 8.18 United States dollars (US$) per visit for HIV testing and counselling to US$ 43.43 for ART (for clients in whom HIV was suppressed). In the United Republic of Tanzania, these costs ranged from US$ 3.67 per visit for HIV testing and counselling to US$ 28.00 for voluntary male medical circumcision. In both countries, consumables were the main cost driver, accounting for more than 60% of expenditure. Process maps showed that in both countries, registration, measurement of vital signs, consultation and medication dispensing were the steps that occurred most frequently for ART clients. Conclusion Establishing a rigorous, longitudinal system for tracking investments in HIV services that includes thousands of clients and numerous facilities is achievable in different settings with a high HIV burden. Consistent engagement of implementation partners and standardized training and data collection instruments proved essential for the success of these exercise