Costing studies and unit-cost data

The problem

Unit costs are the most frequently borrowed and least frequently checked inputs in African economic evaluations. Published estimates are often outdated, drawn from a different facility level or country, or reported without the resource-use assumptions needed to reuse them. Without credible local costs, cost-effectiveness and budget impact estimates are difficult to defend and harder to update.

Our approach

1. 01

   Define the costing question

   Agree the perspective, the services and cost components to include, facility levels, the costing year and currency, and how the results will be used.

2. 02

   Choose the method

   Select bottom-up (ingredients-based), top-down or mixed methods according to the decision need, data availability and budget.

3. 03

   Collect and validate data

   Gather resource use and prices from facility records, programme budgets, procurement data and expert input, with validation checks at each step.

4. 04

   Analyse and document

   Calculate unit costs with uncertainty ranges, allocate shared costs transparently and document every assumption so the results can be updated.

All work follows our six-step pipeline with three expert sign-off gates.

Deliverables

• Unit-cost dataset in a documented, analysis-ready format (CSV and R)
• Costing tool that lets you update prices and volumes
• Methods report describing data sources, allocation rules and limitations
• Summary tables suitable for inclusion in economic models and dossiers