Loan fact finding to reach an agreement with the Government of Bangladesh on objective, scope, cost estimate, financing and implementation arrangements of the Loan Project. Key tasks included:

• Review the economic and financial analysis of the PPTA for the overall project as well as each sub-component (using Costab 3.2 tables). Particular attention on financial viability and sustainability, institutional and financing arrangements, fund flow, roles and responsibilities of each stakeholders, and level of subsidy
• Assist the Mission Leader in the preparation of the draft RRP and all related documents, with an emphasis on the economic and financial analysis, poverty impact assessment, cost estimates, co-financing and contract packaging.
• Participate in discussions regarding poverty impact and affordability issues; and
• Assist the Mission Leader in responding to ADB-wide comments on the draft RRP, refine the document as necessary, and ensure that the final Project design is fully viable in all aspects. Finalize the Economic and Financial Analysis to be included as appendix in the RRP.

Conducted resource needs estimations, based on costing of a minimum package of effective interventions for HIV prevention aimed at adolescents and young people, with differential analysis for estimating required resources for HIV prevention interventions aimed at the “most-at-risk” (MARAs) and especially vulnerable adolescents (EVAs), and the general population of young people, perceived at “low or no” risk of HIV. Specific packages costed for following packages:

• Peer education and outreach
• Youth friendly services, including STI diagnosis and treatment and HIV testing and counselling services
• Services aimed at reducing drug related harm
• Life skills based education (in school)
• Peer education, outreach in community
• Information, education and communication (IEC) campaigns
• Mass media campaigns; and
• Policy interventions

Methods:

• Establish unit cost of each of the above intervention
• Establish critical level of coverage of the target population for EVA and low risk young people
• Summarise the population size for the various populations of young people from existing literature and demographic studies
• Derive at a total estimated resource need for each sub population for East Asia and the Pacific

Financial and economic analysis of the national immunization program of Pakistan. Specific objectives included:

• Estimating current costs of the national immunization program, including routine immunization and polio eradication activities;
• Identifying current funding sources, determining key options for future development of the program (inclusion of hepatitis B, Haemohphilus influenzae and pentavalent vaccines), along with associated financing gaps;
• Analyzing the impact of immunization program development options on target populations by assessing current burden of disease, developing epidemiological models and calculating disability adjusted life years (DALYs) saved; and
• Reporting on the cost-effectiveness of vaccine verses other health sector interventions and recommending ways of strengthening the program.

Study used for assessing the cost-effectiveness of introducing a number of new vaccines, strategic planning and for the next 5-year federal (PC1) planning cycle. Results presented at the Fourth World International Health Economics Association Conference in San Francisco, June 2003.

Economic analysis of Asian Development Bank (ADB) financed health policy reform projects across 9 countries in Asia and the Pacific for the Operations Evaluation Department. Key tasks included:

The study assessed the economic impact of the epidemic.
Key task included:

• Conduct poverty analysis and develop a poverty profile that quantifies the poverty impact of HIV/AIDS, including at a gender disaggregated level, focusing on incomes, savings, assets, schooling, family size and the vulnerability of the poor and the near-poor to health-related shocks in selected countries in the Asia and Pacific region.
• Contribute to other economic analysis arising from the RETA including providing insights /commentary / analysis on HIV/AIDS resource tracking, national AIDS spending assessment, estimation of resource need, cost effectiveness, and household level studies.
• Facilitate on-time submission of formal written reports, including the draft and the final reports.
• Review, analyse and comment upon submission of technical reports and papers that could be required for either the United Nations Commission on AIDS and / or ICAAAP 8 with a view to ensuring highest professional standards of approaches.
• Participate actively in major meetings of the Economic Technical Reference Group that may be called over the period of the assignment, adding value to the discussion, giving a focus to quality assurance and technical rigour to approaches and methodologies under consideration; and keeping stakeholders at the meetings abreast of latest thinking and approaches in the field of health economics as it relates to HIV/AIDS.

Responsible for report preparation and finalisation, economic impact modelling and liaison with regional public health officials. Paper presented at ICAPP – & was covered by Times of India as lead health story http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthScience/

Rich_unfaithful_men_spur_AIDS_in_Asia/articleshow/2305465.cms

Economic evaluation of animal health improvement project (foot rot eradication) within nomadic sheep and goat flocks of the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal. Vaccine adoption, reduced disease prevalence and farmer benefits from enhanced livestock productivity analysed. Farmer interviews conducted, cash flow model developed to determine project returns and document prepared for marketing purposes.