Economics and financial management: what do district managers need to know?

Catriona Waddington for WHO, 2006

There is much talk of the need for "management development" – but in practice few descriptions of what this actually entails. This paper explores the question of whether there could be a more coherent global approach to management development activities related to health economics and financial management at the district level

It begins by developing a list of core topics in the fields of health economics and financial management which district health managers should know about, and then uses this list of topics to analyse relevant training materials and management tools. While some general points can be made about what district health managers need to know, no tool was found which addressed all these points within the broad picture of the district health economy.

The paper concludes with a checklist of issues to consider when thinking about management development activities, informed by the findings of interviews with district health managers in eight countries.

This paper is n. 6 in the WHO series "Making Health Systems Work", and can be viewed at http://www.who.int/management/wp6.pdf