Bergen Center for Ethics and Priority Setting (BCEPS)

Investing in health in low-income countries, particularly through priority interventions in primary health care and fair financing through expanded access to health insurance and prepaid care, will not only save lives but also help reduce inequity, alleviate poverty and provide financial risk protection. The Bergen Center for Ethics and Priority Setting (BCEPS) aims to understand and promote ethically acceptable, fair and efficient priority setting in national health systems. BCEPS will provide decision support to countries for fair and efficient priority setting – on the path to Universal Health Coverage, for public health, and for intersectoral action – in partial fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals BCEPS will expand its work on Disease Control Priorities in Ethiopia, with support from the newly established Addis Center for Ethics and Priority Setting (ACEPS), to Zanzibar and Malawi. BCEPS will provide capacity strengthening and help define and implement a highest priority package for NCDs and injuries in Zanzibar and an essential surgery package in Malawi. In all activities, we will monitor implementation on three outcomes: health, equity, and financial risk protection. The work in BCEPS will be organized in five teams: the core analytics team, the data visualization team, the translation and process team, the Zanzibar NCDI team, and the Malawi essential surgery team. BCEPS will be located at the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen. Norwegian partners include Center for International Health, Christian Michelsen Institute, FAIR (NHH/Norwegian School of Economics), and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. International collaborating partners include Harvard University, University of Washington, University of California San Francisco, University of Addis Ababa, The World Health Organization, and Ministries of Health in Malawi, Zanzibar and Ethiopia.