Various organisations such as the WHO and the World Bank employ health economists to research and evaluate of programs run by these organisations or their associated bodies.
Example projects for health economists working within an NGO include:
- undertaking reviews and analysis of macro-economic policies and their effects on scaling up donor aid to various countries. Also how the macro-economic policies and capacities of the health sectors in recipient countries may affect the utilisation of this aid.
- assisting NGO partners/recipient countries to foster the development of equitable, efficient and sustainable forms of health system financing and organisation. This is achieved through policy support to countries, the development of tools and information to feed into the policy process and subsequent implementation, and appropriate capacity building.
Health economist, an international non-government organisation
Sophia has obtained a Bachelor of Economics (Honours), a Masters of Economics and a PhD in the area of Health Economics all from the University of New South Wales.
She is currently a health economics consultant working for a large international non- government organisation (NGO) in Vietnam. Her role includes assembling regional databases on the costs, impact on population health and costeffectiveness of a number of key public health interventions. This work will help the local government and ministry to identify its public health program priorities and strategies to approach agencies for additional aid funding.
Prior to this position overseas, Sophia worked as a health economics researcher for a NSW based university and also for a private consulting company in health policy program evaluation, efficiency improvements and healthcare industry analysis.