I’m about to post a cost-effectiveness analysis here for OneDay Health, and I might just use your calculator for the family planning aspect if that’s OK. It’s a small part of what we do (average 2-3 injections per month per OneDay Health center) but it would still add something to our analysis. I’ll definitely discount though as I’m sure every dose of family planning that you supply under those difficult conditions in Nigeria has more impact even than in remote rural Uganda due to the higher birthrate there and immense barriers to accessing family planning even more than Uganda.
I LOVE that you are working with real local salaries and with volunteer managers, keeping your costs very low. It almost seems like you have started with a kind of minimum viable product which is absolutely the best way to start. Many top-down projects start with horrendously inflated costs and this causes funders to not believe that organisations such as yours can operate so cheaply.
Unfortunately at OneDay Health we have found our management costs to increase substantially as we scaled (accounting costs, more higher level management and transport needed etc.) while unfortunately we find very few economies of scale—I hope you’ll do better than us there. Still though even if your management costs massively increase I’m sure you will remain super cost effective. I find this very stressful as I always hoped if anything our costs would reduce as we grew where in reality the opposite happens. My only advice here would be to try not to worry if costs increase. You are doing more good even if it is more expensive per dose administered!
I’m surprised though you don’t get at least a lot your contraceptives for free through partners. In Uganda we connect with Marie Stopes and Reproductive Health International to get most family planning supplies at no cost to us. Obviously the cost is still there in reality, but it makes programming easier from our end.
Thank you for your patience with my reply. I’m currently in Nigeria and organising two trainings for 40+ health workers so it’s really busy now.
Of course, feel free to use our calculations, I am happy that it can be useful for your organisation. Also, I’d love to see your own cost-effectiveness analysis for OneDay Health, I’ll be waiting for your post soon. I’ll also post soon forecasted calculations for this year.
My strong belief is you do not need a lot to make a lot of positive impact and it is better to do things on a shoestring budget to avoid unnecessary spending. It is yet another exercise in responsibility for the founder—not only for the effects but also for inputs. One thing we are conscious about are the scaling up costs. The costs may increase temporarily but ultimately we are scaling up our health worker network 3.5 times this month and initial calculations look quite promising! Thank you for your kind words—it is important to remember that some of the new costs are investments for future impact.
It is so interesting to hear about your connection with MSI and RHI -I’d love to hear more about it and just dropped you a message on LinkedIn, let’s chat soon!
Thanks so much for the in-depth reply
I’m about to post a cost-effectiveness analysis here for OneDay Health, and I might just use your calculator for the family planning aspect if that’s OK. It’s a small part of what we do (average 2-3 injections per month per OneDay Health center) but it would still add something to our analysis. I’ll definitely discount though as I’m sure every dose of family planning that you supply under those difficult conditions in Nigeria has more impact even than in remote rural Uganda due to the higher birthrate there and immense barriers to accessing family planning even more than Uganda.
I LOVE that you are working with real local salaries and with volunteer managers, keeping your costs very low. It almost seems like you have started with a kind of minimum viable product which is absolutely the best way to start. Many top-down projects start with horrendously inflated costs and this causes funders to not believe that organisations such as yours can operate so cheaply.
Unfortunately at OneDay Health we have found our management costs to increase substantially as we scaled (accounting costs, more higher level management and transport needed etc.) while unfortunately we find very few economies of scale—I hope you’ll do better than us there. Still though even if your management costs massively increase I’m sure you will remain super cost effective. I find this very stressful as I always hoped if anything our costs would reduce as we grew where in reality the opposite happens. My only advice here would be to try not to worry if costs increase. You are doing more good even if it is more expensive per dose administered!
I’m surprised though you don’t get at least a lot your contraceptives for free through partners. In Uganda we connect with Marie Stopes and Reproductive Health International to get most family planning supplies at no cost to us. Obviously the cost is still there in reality, but it makes programming easier from our end.
Thanks, Nick.
Hi Nick,
Thank you for your patience with my reply. I’m currently in Nigeria and organising two trainings for 40+ health workers so it’s really busy now.
Of course, feel free to use our calculations, I am happy that it can be useful for your organisation. Also, I’d love to see your own cost-effectiveness analysis for OneDay Health, I’ll be waiting for your post soon. I’ll also post soon forecasted calculations for this year.
My strong belief is you do not need a lot to make a lot of positive impact and it is better to do things on a shoestring budget to avoid unnecessary spending. It is yet another exercise in responsibility for the founder—not only for the effects but also for inputs. One thing we are conscious about are the scaling up costs. The costs may increase temporarily but ultimately we are scaling up our health worker network 3.5 times this month and initial calculations look quite promising! Thank you for your kind words—it is important to remember that some of the new costs are investments for future impact.
It is so interesting to hear about your connection with MSI and RHI -I’d love to hear more about it and just dropped you a message on LinkedIn, let’s chat soon!
Sending lots of love still from Nigeria,
Klau