official development assistance

World Health Statistics 2013 contains WHO’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 194 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets.
This year, it also includes highlight summaries on the topics of reducing the gaps between the world’s most-advantaged and least-advantaged countries, and on current trends in official development assistance (ODA) for health.

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.

the objective of the UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) is to monitor the inputs required to extend and sustain water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems and services. This includes the components of the “enabling environment”: documenting government policy and institutional frameworks; the volume, sources and targeting of investment; the sufficiency of human resources; priorities and gaps with respect to external assistance; and the influence of these factors on performance.