Eliana Chavarría Pino, Health & Wellbeing, University of Manchester (2021 Cohort)

This was a very productive, exciting and stimulating summer. Since late June I travelled to Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, for a field research stay. My PhD aims to evaluate the effect of public health expenditure on child and maternal health and care outcomes using Mozambique as a case study. During the visit, I held meetings with colleagues at the Ministry of Health, the National Institute of Health, and key staff at development agencies and International organisations working in the health space. These meetings were extremely useful and valuable for my research. I had the opportunity to validate preliminary analysis and assumptions, gather feedback to inform further analyses, and collect the latest data. I also attended national workshops sharing descriptive statistics on the latest Household Budget Survey and discussing aspects of the functioning of the health system, such as actions to improve coordination in the response and delivery of health programmes and services. Through informal conversations with people, I also gained a deeper understanding of the healthcare system and accounts of perceptions of how it works. Walking in the city and a rural area I could also see some health centres from the outside.

During July, I also participated and presented at the International Health Economics Association Conference held in Cape Town. This is a Conference with great reputation as it gathers Health economists from around the world and has a breadth of research areas and countries. I presented ongoing work on a Systematic review on the effect of health expenditure on health and care as part of an organised session on health financing, and had an individual presentation to talk about my research from Mozambique. This year was the first time the Conference was held in Africa, attracting many researchers and policymakers working in the region. I had so many interesting conversations and gained useful insights that I will incorporate into my work. The overall topic of the Conference was Diversity in Health Economics and it was very instructive to follow the latest conversations and efforts to make research in this area more inclusive and to take into account power dynamics between organisations in high-income and middle- or low-income countries. Attendees remained critical about encouraging research that involves local researchers and actors and prioritising research in neglected areas. Finally, we also had a mentoring space between senior researchers and PhD students or early career researchers. We were able to have individual conversations with mentors about our research project, areas of interest and future career plans, and receive their advice and recommendations.

Research left aside, exploring Mozambique and South Africa was an incredible experience. The landscapes and sunsets were breath-taking, the food, the fantastic weather (sorry Manchester!), the nature and animals, the people, the music and the abundant cultural activities. I am now back in Manchester, and I will be meditating on this experience as well as on the insights I gained to orient the discussion of my research results. Thanks to the NWSSDTP for funding my fieldwork and also for covering the expenses for my participation in the IHEA Conference (along with the Conference organisers). It really was an experience of a lifetime and will greatly enrich my research. To my colleagues in Mozambique and friends in Maputo, thank you, we will continue to collaborate and I will see you next time. Com saudades desde já!