Resource allocation for HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 140
ISBN-13: 9780494219546
Description: This thesis aims to suggest effective strategies for improving the allocation of resources towards HIV/AIDS interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. It is composed of three main chapters. The first examines a model for optimizing the allocation of resources to HIV/AIDS programs when there are two levels of decision-making. The second chapter is a case study exploring actual decision-making processes for HIV/AIDS resource allocation in sub-Saharan Africa. In the last chapter, I create a decision support tool for HIV/AIDS resource allocation. A brief summary of each chapter follows.Funds spent on HIV prevention commonly traverse several levels of distribution. For example, funds may be allocated to regions, and regional authorities may then allocate their funds to sub-regions or targeted risk groups. Decision-makers at each level often use heuristics that may result in suboptimal allocation of resources. I examine the impact of equity based heuristic allocation of HIV prevention funds versus optimal allocation of HIV prevention funds when there are two levels of decision-making. Results demonstrate that if optimization can only be applied to one level of the decision-making process, there are more significant gains when applied at the lower level rather than the upper level.Formal procedures for allocating funds towards HIV/AIDS interventions in sub-Saharan Africa are seldom used. Therefore, I conducted a case study to determine the actual decision-making process for HIV/AIDS resource allocation in the municipality of kwaDukuza, South Africa. Results indicate that many social, ethical, political and other non-quantifiable factors influence the resource allocation process for HIV/AIDS. These factors reveal important differences between actual practice and rational economic approaches for resource allocation.The non-quantifiable factors that influence resource allocation decisions are difficult to model using a rational economic approach, yet their consideration is critical to an improved allocation process. Thus I designed S4HARA, a decision-support system for HIV/AIDS resource allocation that takes into consideration both principles of efficient resource allocation and the role of non-quantifiable influences on this decision-making process. S4HARA is a four-step spreadsheet based model. The model is applied to the context of a publicly funded primary health care clinic in South Africa.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-01, Section: B, page: 0607.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

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