Industrial Productivity, Health Sector Performance and Policy Synergies for Inclusive Growth: A Study in Tanzania and Kenya

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The proposed project studies the supply chains of commodities - essential medicines, medical equipment and supplies, and some other health essentials such as disinfectant - from local industries and from imports into the health systems in the two countries. Shortages and unaffordability of these commodities are persistent causes of poor quality health care and exclusion from care in low income Africa. For two selected case study countries, Tanzania and Kenya, both low income but one (Kenya) with more developed manufacturing, we aim to test the hypothesis that there are unexplored synergies between industrial and health policies that could be identified, and that, if addressed, could contribute to higher employment, industrial upgrading and improved health system performance and accessibility in each country. If we are correct, improved industrial production, in terms of higher producitivity, more appropriate and cheaper products, and innovative methods of production, could improve health service performance while raising economic output: in other words, it could contribute to inclusive growth. The proposed research would bring together two groups of researchers who often work in separate 'boxes, by linking up the concerns of industrial specialists, looking at the scope for industrial innovation to develop new products and processes and raise industrial productivity, and the concerns of health systems specialists with health system strengthening including improving access to supplies. There is patchy evidence that local production of medicines may improve access to essential medicines, and that shorter supply chains and diversification of sources of supply can reduce shortages, but there are also doubts among health specialists about the quality and economic viability of local production of medicines in Africa. There is however renewed interest among African policy makers and international donors in supporting African industrial development, including local production of pharmaceuticals, and this project would contribute new information to assist debate. This is a research collaboration between two East African research institutes, ACTS in Nairobi, Kenya, and REPOA in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the Open University, UK, and Rand Europe. It brings together expertise in health systems and health markets; health economics; industrial economics; and technology and innovation studies. The research process will involve from the start private, NGO and public sector stakeholders in both health and industrial sectors, and thus aims to bring together two groups of policy makers too often working in isolation from each other, to debate concrete policy options that arise from the research findings. We aim to translate the research into local and international policy impact.