Financing Global Health 2013: Transition in an Age of Austerity

Financing Global Health 2013: Transition in an Age of Austerity, IHME’s fifth annual report on global health expenditure, depicts financing trends that underline the resilience of development assistance for health. This year’s updated estimates show that despite lackluster economic growth and fiscal cutbacks in many developed countries, total assistance remained steady, reaching an all-time high of $31.3 billion in 2013. While annual increases have leveled off since 2010, continued international funding is a sign of the international development community’s enduring support for global health.

The report also shows shifts in sources of financing. As funding from many bilateral donors and development banks has declined, growth in funding from the GAVI Alliance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, non-governmental organizations, and the UK government is counteracting these cuts. Development assistance for different health issues is tracked up to 2011, revealing that the greatest increase in funding was for maternal, newborn, and child health.

New this year, IHME measured health funding for tobacco control for the first time and, using data from the Global Burden of Disease study, compared it to disease burden attributable to tobacco use. In general, the report found gaps between donor funding and disease burden in most regions, particularly with respect to non-communicable diseases; while these are a prominent and rising cause of health loss in the developing world, they are not a primary focus of development assistance for health. And many of the countries with the highest overall disease burdens do not receive the most development assistance for health.