Manual: Economic Evaluation: Guide to Approaches for Public Health Supply Chains

Decision-makers in developing countries must continually choose between different courses of action as they pursue public health goals. Among their most critical choices are those relating to how best to strengthen commodity supply chains for more accessible, affordable, and higher quality products and services. Economic evaluation — studies that compare the costs and consequences of alternative supply chain investments — can be a critical tool to help in these decisions. This guide describes a framework to apply principles of economic evaluation to supply chain decision-making. It defines main types of analyses including cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit, and return on investment, and provides examples of supply chain economic evaluation.