Counting the cost: Assessing the cost of ill-health in West Darfur, Sudan

During Valid Evaluations’ four-year study of multiyear humanitarian financing (MYHF), ill-health repeatedly emerged as a factor keeping people in poverty and vulnerability. Despite the importance of this issue, there is a lack of information on the economic cost of ill-health for households. Isolated studies have quantified the direct costs of a visit to a clinic, but no specific studies are available for Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that aggregate the full economic impact of illness. This makes policy development a real challenge. In response to this lack of data, Valid Evaluations has undertaken two stand-alone studies on the subject: one in West Darfur, the subject of this paper; and a study in North Kivu, DRC, published separately.

This report was originally published by the Overseas Development Institute in partnership with the UK’s Department for International Development.