Aid

While donor funding for health in low and middle-income countries rose significantly in the last decade, the era of rapid growth has come to an end. Health increased as a share of Official Development Assistance (ODA) during the early part of the past decade, largely spurred on by the creation of several new funding initiatives and mechanisms such as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). However, this share has remained essentially flat in recent years, with year-to-year increases in donor funding for health peaking in 2007, and declining each year since.

In its 2012 Report, the MDG Gap Task Force has had difficulty identifying areas of significant new progress towards delivering on commitments to the Global Partnership for Development, and for the first time there are signs of backsliding. The volume of official development assistance (ODA) fell for the first time in many years, obstacles to exports from developing countries are on the rise, and numerous developing countries are facing debt difficulties. With less than three years until 2015, there is no apparent commitment by donor Governments to reverse the trend in time, and it is likely that fewer MDGs will be reached in fewer countries as a result.

UNAIDS and the Kaiser Family Foundation have been tracking donor government assistance for AIDS in low- and middle- income countries since 2002. This latest report provides data from governments for 2011, the most recent year with comparable data available across donors. As it shows, international assistance rose sharply from 2002 through 2008, the period just before the onset of the economic crisis. It then began to flatten and, last year, for the first time, disbursements declined. The current report finds that although funding has gone back up, it remains at 2008 levels. If such trends continue, reaching the UN Political Declaration investment target of $22-24 billion needed by 2015 could be at risk.

With donor spending from the U.S. and Europe slowing or declining, there is an urgent need for new global health resources and champions. With this in mind, international organizations have started looking to the BRICS as potential donors and health innovators. GHSi’s report explores the expanding influence of the BRICS on global health and development through their foreign assistance programs and innovative, home-grown products and services.

How has funding to developing countries for health improvement changed in the wake of the global financial crisis? The question is vital for policy making, planning, and advocacy purposes in donor and recipient countries alike. We measured the total amount of financial and in-kind assistance that flowed from both public and private channels to improve health in developing countries during the period 1990–2011. The data for the years 1990–2009 reflect disbursements, while the numbers for 2010 and 2011 are preliminary estimates. Development assistance for health continued to grow in 2011, but the rate of growth was low.We estimate that assistance for health grew by 4 percent each year from 2009 to 2011, reaching a total of $27.73 billion.