Washington, D.C., 1998 This book provides basic tools that water service companies can use to evaluate the components of their systems that are vulnerable to major natural hazards (earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and drought).

National Health Accounts (NHA) is a tool designed to inform the health policy process. It aims to do so by providing policymakers with valuable information on the distribution of health funds within the system. NHA was introduced and implemented in a number of middle - and low-income countries in the mid- to late 1990s. As sufficient time has passed for NHA findings to penetrate the policy processes in these countries, this study sets out to determine if NHA has actually met its principal goal of contributing to evidence-based policymaking. The paper examines the policy impact of NHA in 21 developing countries from the Latin America and the Caribbean region, East and Southern Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and the Asia Pacific region. The study describes how policymakers have used NHA and assesses the various factors and influences that determine the extent to which NHA impacts the policy process. It is hoped that lessons learned from this study can help other countries as they move forward with efforts to inform health policymaking using health expenditure information.

Page 67 8.4 Analysis of the Health Situation Before designing or approving proposals for interventions, it is imperative that an analysis of the situation be carried out. The purpose of the health situation analysis is to: 1. Collect relevant data for assessing health and nutrition status of the population at risk and identify critical health risk factors in the environment. There may be multiple sources of information provided by the host government, other donors, NGOs, and/or pre-existing USAID programs in the affected area. The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) carried out in many USAID-assisted countries can provide a readily available baseline of health status of the affected population. Other sources of information include: Sample surveys Immunization campaigns Analysis of reports and records from the Ministry of Health (MOH), other health providers and health information systems. In emergency health programs, each health facility providing outpatient services should complete standardized surveillance forms for mortality and morbidity providing age, sex, and cause-specific data. Direct observation 2. Establish priority needs and determine resource requirements. 3. Coordinate with other donors and implementing partners. 4. Ensure that interventions are based on adequate data and analysis,