Overview

About HEU

The Health Economics Unit (HEU) was established in early 1990 in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town. The HEU works to improve the performance of health systems through informing health policy and enhancing technical and managerial capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Its foundation is academic excellence in health economics and management.

Vision

Our work at the HEU is guided by the following vision:
The HEU will be a world-class independent authority in health economics and related fields. It will lead in publishing innovative research which addresses priority conceptual and methodological issues in low- and middle- income countries. It will play a key role in global post-graduate training in health economics and offer expert policy advice on relevant issues in Sub-Saharan Africa. To achieve this, the HEU will pursue a balance of mainstream and developmental health economics drawing on a strong human resource base with a full range of relevant skills and a diversity of nationalities and backgrounds.

Objectives

The four core objectives of the HEU are:

• To conduct high quality research in health economics and policy with an emphasis on equity in health, health sector reform, health care financing and expenditure, pharmaceutical policy and regulation and the economic evaluation of key health care programmes.
• To train at the post-graduate level and through client-specific short courses to improve technical research and management capacity.
• To develop capacity in health economics in Africa.
• To provide technical support to facilitate the translation of health policies into practical programmes.

Principles

HEU is committed to the following guiding principles:

• Excellence and independence.
• Fairness, social responsiveness and accountability in health systems.
• Respect for its collaborators and stakeholders.
• Innovative thinking, to ensure its work remains ground-breaking.

Our offices are situated on the University of Cape Town’s medical campus just below Devils Peak mountain in Cape Town, South Africa.

Walkway photo

The walkway connecting medical campus and Groote Schuur hospital in Observatory, Cape Town.

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