Dr James Akazili is a Scientist of the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC). He holds an MA in Economics from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana and MA and PhD degrees in Health Economics from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He has led several longitudinal surveys on topics related to health systems impact, including studies of bednet introduction, reproductive health services, and child health. He successfully completed his PhD thesis on equity in health care financing in Ghana. Among several findings Dr Akazili evaluated the equity in the current NHI payments and suggested ways for Ghana and other African countries to attain Universal health care coverage.
Dr Akazili’s recent research is focused on equity, inequality and efficiency in health care access, the economics of malaria and other tropical diseases, Social/National/community health insurance and general health care financing. He has recently worked on the economic evaluation of the Ghana Essential Health Intervention Project and INDEPTH Universal Health Coverage project and is currently coordinating a Gates’ funded multi-country research work on Methodological challenges of Out-Of-Pocket payments for health care. Dr Akazili has over thirty publications in peer review journals.
He is currently leading the health economics component of the COUNTDOWN research work in Ghana.