The 2020 Report analyzes global health spending for 190 countries from 2000 to 2018 and provides insights as to the health spending trajectory from the MDG era to the SDG era prior to the crisis of 2020. The report shows that global spending on health continually rose between 2000 and 2018 and reach...ed US$ 8.3 trillion or 10% of global GDP. The data also show that out-of-pocket spending has remained high in low and lower-middle income countries, representing greater than 40% of total health spending in 2018. We also report and summarize the data on expenditures for PHC, as well as by disease and intervention, including for immunization. The report also analyzes the available data on budget allocation in response to the COVID-19 crisis. In addition, we combine World Bank/IMF projections of the macroeconomic and fiscal impact of the crisis with an analysis of the historical determinants of health spending patterns and UHC indicators, and based on this, we draw out the likely implications of 2020 for future health spending, highlighting key policy and monitoring concerns.
more
Globally, 311,000 women die of cervical cancer every year, 85 percent of them
in resource limited regions of the world. To address this grave threat to women,
the WHO made a call to action in 2018, resulting in accelerated plans to improve
cervical cancer control under the elimination threshold w...ith respect to cervical
cancer incidence. As part of WHO’s approach to cervical cancer control, availability of high quality,
affordable medical devices for HPV screening, and treatment of precancerous
lesions in low resource settings is indispensable.
more
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide in 2018, with 570,000 new cases and 311,000 deaths occurring annually.T he highest incidence rates are in Southern Africa, Eastern Africa, SubSaharan Africa, Western Africa, Melanesia, and Middle Africa . It also ranks as the leadin...g cause of cancer-related death in most African countries. More than 85% of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries . In addition, women living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are six times as likely to have cervical cancer
more
In 2017, $37.4 billion of development assistance was provided to low- and middleincome countries to maintain or improve health. This amount is down slightly compared to 2016, and since 2010, development assistance for health (DAH) has grown at an annualized rate of 1.0%. While global development ass...istance for health has seemingly leveled off, global health spending continues to climb, outpacing economic growth in many countries. Total health spending for 2015, the most recent year for which data are available, was estimated to be $9.7 trillion (95% uncertainty interval: 9.7–9.8)*, up 4.7% (3.9–5.6) from the prior year, and accounted for 10% of the world’s total economy. With some sources of health spending growing and other types remaining steady, and with major variations in spending from country to country, it is more important than ever to understand where resources for health come from, where they go, and how they align with health needs. This information is critical for planning and is a necessary catalyst for change as we aim to close the gap on the unfinished agenda of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and move forward toward universal health coverage (UHC) in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era.
more
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a double shock - health and economic. As of March 1, 2021, COVID-19 has cost more than 2.5 million lives and triggered an economic recession surpassing any economic downturn since World War II.
Part I of this paper explores the impact of this current macro-fisc...al outlook on the three primary sources of health spending. Drawing on experiences from previous economic crises, scenario analyses suggest a fall in government per capita spending on health in 2021 and 2022 unless governments make bold choices to increase the share of health in general government spending.
Part II of the paper discusses policy options to meet the spending needs in health. These options encompass strategies to make fiscal adjustments work and channel funds where they are most needed, as well as policies to stabilize the balance sheets of social health insurance (SHI) schemes. The paper explains how the health sector can play an active role in expanding fiscal space, contributing to tax reforms, most importantly pro-health taxes, and mobilizing and absorbing external financing, including debt relief.
more
This results report for the biennium 2020–2021 presents the progress towards the triple billion targets, outcomes and outputs, based on the GPW 13 results framework and indicators. It uses structured methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative, for measuring and analysing the achievements and... challenges to achieving them, and includes country and impact case studies to exemplify how the Organization’s work is driving health impacts at the country level, where it matters most. For the first time, the WHO Secretariat is reporting on its investments, results and performance through a scorecard methodology for every country or territory it serves.
more
The UK government hosted the Global Vaccine Summit on June 4, 2020 under the patronage of the Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The meeting was held by videoconference in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 2. The Summit brought... together more than 300 people, including 42 Heads of State and Government. 62 countries were represented, notably 14 Gavi implementing countries, all of the G7 nations and 19 governments of the G20. Eminent participants also included H.E. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations; H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission; H.E. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General; H.E. Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director; Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Ministers from implementing and donor countries; CEOs of vaccine manufacturing companies and private sector partners; leaders of UN and other international agencies; senior civil society representatives; and Gavi champions. A full list of the participants can be found in Annex.
more
This codebook outlines the set of TUFF procedures that have been developed, tested, refined, and implemented by AidData staff and affiliated faculty at the College of William & Mary. We initially employed these methods to achieve a specific objective: documenting the known universe of officially fin...anced Chinese projects in Africa (Strange et al. 2013, 2017). We have since then employed these methods to track Chinese official finance to five major world regions: Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Central and Eastern Europe (Dreher et al. 2017). Additionally, other social scientists have adapted and applied the TUFF methodology to identify grants and loans from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members (Minor et al. 2014), under-reported humanitarian assistance flows from traditional and non-traditional sources (Ghose 2017), foreign direct investment from Western and non-Western sources (Bunte et al. 2017), and pre-2000 foreign aid flows from China (Morgan and Zheng 2017). However, this codebook focuses specifically on TUFF data collection and quality assurance procedures to track Chinese official finance between 2000 and 2014.
more
The GFF needs an additional US$2.5 billion from 2021 to 2025 to enable countries to protect health gains and accelerate progress toward the 2030 Goals. Of this amount, the GFF urgently needs to secure new pledges of US$1.2 billion by the end of 2021 to help its current 36 partner countries protect ...and maintain essential health services and implement time-sensitive service delivery and health system improvements to enable a sharp bend of the curve back to a positive trajectory to close the gap to the SDGs.
more
Over the 20 years that followed, this unique partnership has invested more than US$53 billion, saving 44 million lives and reducing the combined death rate from the three diseases by more than half in the countries in which the Global Fund invests.
Ending the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria by 2030 is within reach, but not yet fully in our grasp.
With only 11 years left, we have no time to waste. We must step up the fight now.
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 fi...scal 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.
more
Financing Global Health 2015 is the seventh edition of IHME’s annual series on global health financing. This report captures trends in development assistance for health (DAH) and government health expenditure as source (GHE-S) in low- and middle-income countries. Annually updated GHE-S and DAH est...imates are produced to aid decision-makers and other global health stakeholders in identifying funding gaps and invesment opportunities vital to improving population health. This year, IHME made a number of improvements to the data collection and methods implemented to generate Financing Global Health estimates.
more
Between 2012 and 2016, development assistance for HIV/AIDS decreased by 20·0%; domestic financing is therefore critical to sustaining the response to HIV/AIDS. To understand whether domestic resources could fill the financing gaps created by declines in development assistance, we aimed to track spe...nding on HIV/AIDS and estimated the potential for governments to devote additional domestic funds to HIV/AIDS.
more
After years of relative calm, Zimbabwe has been grappling with a cholera outbreak since 12 February 2023. This resurgence is not an isolated incident, as 10 more countries (Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia, South Sudan, Burundi, Tanzania and South Africa) in Eastern and Southern ...Africa are facing similar challenges with cholera an acute watery diarrhea.
To date, a total of 13,176 suspected cases and 1,543 confirmed cases have been reported.This stark reality underscores the need for continued coordinated action to control the spread of this preventable disease.
more
This technical report has been developed within the framework of the WHO Global Initiative for
Childhood Cancer. Its goal is to improve the situation of children and adolescents with cancer worldwide,
giving them the best chances of survival, living a full life and, above all, enjoying quality of ...life and dying
without suffering
more
In 2024, we need US$1.5 billion to provide live-saving health care to millions of people in emergencies. An alarming combination of conflict, climate-related threats and increasing economic hardship mean an estimated 166 million people require health assistance.
Terminology used to describe the transmission of pathogens through the air varies across scientific disciplines, organizations and the general public. While this has been the case for decades, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the terms ‘airborne’, ‘airborne transmission’ a...nd ‘aerosol transmission’ were used in different ways by stakeholders in different scientific disciplines, which may have contributed to misleading information and confusion about how pathogens are transmitted in human populations.
This global technical consultation report brings together viewpoints from experts spanning a range of disciplines with the key objective of seeking consensus regarding the terminology used to describe the transmission of pathogens through the air that can potentially cause infection in humans.
This consultation aimed to identify terminology that could be understood and accepted by different technical disciplines. The agreed process was to develop a consensus document that could be endorsed by global agencies and entities. Despite the complex discussions and challenges, significant progress was made during the consultation process, particularly the consensus on a set of descriptors to describe how pathogens are transmitted through the air and the related modes of transmission. WHO recognizes the important areas where consensus was not achieved and will continue to address these areas in follow-up consultations.
more
One of the main aims of the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer and the CureAll Americas framework is to strengthen centers of excellence and promote the training of the health workforce, especially pediatric oncology nurses, specialized in nursing care for children and adolescents with cance...r and their families. These health personnel provide compassionate, non traumatic, complex, continuous, ethical, conscious patient- and family-centered care in order to meet the physical, emotional, psychosocial, and cultural needs of the people involved. This publication is aimed at health administration teams, hospital management teams, and professional pediatric oncology nursing groups. Its objective is to identify, systematize, and consolidate available evidence on the scope of pediatric oncology nursing practice in Latin America and the Caribbean based on core competencies, in order to incorporate them into clinical practice, teaching, and research. The preparation process included a systematic review aimed at finding the best evidence on this subject. Patient- and family centered care and the conceptual model of competencies for teenagers and young adults with cancer, developed by the Teenage Cancer Trust with the support of the Royal College of Nursing, were the theoretical foundations supporting the systematization of recommendations.
more
Background
Asthma education, a key component of long-term asthma management, is challenging in resource-limited settings with shortages of clinical staff. Task-shifting educational roles to lay (non-clinical) staff is a potential solution. We conducted a randomised controlled trial of an enhanced a...sthma care intervention for children in Malawi, which included reallocation of asthma education tasks to lay-educators. In this qualitative sub-study, we explored the experiences of asthmatic children, their families and lay-educators, to assess the acceptability, facilitators and barriers, and perceived value of the task-shifting asthma education intervention.
Methods
We conducted six focus group discussions, including 15 children and 28 carers, and individual interviews with four lay-educators and a senior nurse. Translated transcripts were coded independently by three researchers and key themes identified.
Results
Prior to the intervention, participants reported challenges in asthma care including the busy and sometimes hostile clinical environment, lack of access to information and the erratic supply of medication. The education sessions were well received: participants reported greater understanding of asthma and their treatment and confidence to manage symptoms. The lay-educators appreciated pre-intervention training, written guidelines, and access to clinical support. Low education levels among carers presented challenges, requiring an open, non-critical and individualised approach.
Discussion
Asthma education can be successfully delivered by lay-educators with adequate training, supervision and support, with benefits to the patients, their families and the community. Wider implementation could help address human resource shortages and support progress towards Universal Health Coverage.
more