Results for Development — with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — is helping to establish the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC, http://www.r4d.org/projects/toward-health-strengthening-strategic-purchasing-expertise-africa/). SPARC will be housed within a sub-Saharan African institution and serve as the hub of a vibrant network for people and institutions working on strategic purchasing in the region.
SPARC aims to complement, rather than duplicate, existing initiatives, including the African Collaborative for Health Financing Solutions (ACS). An Advisory Committee of global and regional stakeholders will provide guidance on the design of the SPARC model and implementation activities.
As the SPARC model is in the early stages of its design, a 15-person Advisory Committee is being convened to guide the development of the model to ensure that it is effective and complementary to the many global, regional and country-level initiatives to strengthen health financing in sub-Saharan Africa. For this reason P4H has been invited to contribute expertise and knowledge of the health financing and policy landscape in sub-Saharan Africa and the specific needs for capacity building as part of a SPARC start-up Advisory Committee.
