The Health Economics Focal Area (Health Systems Research Unit) hosted a 2-day hybrid meeting (27-28th February 2025, Durban) themed “Developing South Africa’s First Quality of Life Value Set to inform Health Technology Assessments”. 

This work forms the basis of a collaborative seed project with health economists at the SAMRC (PI: Dr Darshini Govindasamy) and The George Institute for Global Health (PI: Prof Stephen Jan). 

The aim of this meeting was to 

1. understand best practices from the African region and other LMICs on the development of a quality-of-life tariff; 
2. engage with key stakeholders (researchers-public and private health sector, policy makers) to map out the process for developing South Africa’s quality of life valuation protocol. 

 
In-person workshop attendees representing key health economic groups from the African Region and Australia

The workshop was attended by approximately 60 researchers (25 in-person, 35 online) from a wide range of disciplines (health economics, health policy, demography, epidemiology, biostatistics), with representatives from South African Health institutes (UCT-Health Economics Unit, SAMRC/WITS- PRICELESS, SAMRC- SAPRIN, HIDRU, BOD, Council of Medical Schemes, Insight), including the National Department of Health (Mr Moremi Nkosi- Chief Director: Health Benefits and Provider payment design, National Health Insurance, National Department of Health). Presenters from the African region (Africa CDC, KEMRI, Centre for Health Economic Research and Evaluation, University of Technology, Malawi Liverpool Welcome Programme) and India (Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research) stressed the importance of including a robust pilot and training phase in South Africa’s valuation protocol, with local researchers emphasizing the need to co-develop the work with community and ensuring representation of vulnerable groups. Dr Thomas Gadsden (The George Institute) presented methodological considerations for a valuation study in South Africa based on a scoping review of studies conducted in LMICs. Dr Darshini Govindasamy closed the meeting by acknowledging the strong support received from researchers and NDOH to develop a South African value set, and highlighted that plans are underway for further dialogues with scientific experts, programme and policy experts and community representatives.

Reflecting on the meeting, Dr Donela Besada (Health Economist at the SAMRC) indicated that “…this value set will inform economic guidelines under South Africa’s Health Technology Assessment. Therefore, we need to leverage local, regional and international funding opportunities to ensure we deliver a high-quality value set, and capacity building in African health economists during the process.”