In response to the recent economic downturn and continuing debate over whether development aid should continue, its effectiveness, and how future decreases in aid may influence global health, researchers at The Lancet conducted a comprehensive survey to analyze the historical source and use of development assistance for health (DAH).  The group notes that “timely and reliable information about global health resource flows to low-income and middle-income countries” was lacking, and thus went about assessing changes to DAH in the report titled “Financing of global health: tracking development assistance for health from 1990 to 2007.”

DAH, defined by the group as all funding coming from public and private institutions meant to serve as health-related development assistance to low-income and middle-income countries, was found to have grown substantially during the period of time considered.  As noted in the report, between 1990 and 2007 DAH increased from $5.6 billion to $21.8 billion, with the most substantial percentage of funding going to HIV/AIDS related uses in the latter years.  Increased overall funding for health did lead to a reduction in disease burden, however the researchers did not find a positive correlation between DAH and ‘per head’ GDP.
 
Interestingly, the percentage of funds coming from large international relief groups such as UN agencies and banks decreased between 1990 and 2007.  Public funding from the US and other nations, along with private funding from philanthropic organizations and corporate in-kind contributions, along with the increased volume of non-profit organizations working for improved global health, contributed significantly to increase in DAH resources overall.  With so many disparate groups working to achieve an improvement in global health, where before the resources were held by a few large organizations, there has been an institutional change in how DAH is being accessed and the decisions made on use of resources.  How this shift will ultimately influence the recipients of development assistance is not addressed. However as much of the current funding is drawn from resources more heavily hit by the economic downturn the likelihood of sustained or increased assistance going forward is now in question.

Read the report.