Many lower-income and other nations will be unable to maintain pre-pandemic levels of financing for their health systems, as the COVID-19 crisis forces cutbacks on government spending overall, the World Bank warned in a report update released Tuesday.
The document, which updates the report “From Double Shock to Double Recovery,” notes that while not all of the 52 countries set to see overall declines in per capita government spending through 2026 are low-income, many of them are, including countries across Africa. Crucially, some will be unable to buy enough COVID-19 vaccines for their populations.
“Wealthier countries have to recognize their interests in this recovery and back it up with resources.”
— Christoph Kurowski, lead author of “From Double Shock to Double Recovery,” World Bank“The economic shock from Covid-19 is threatening the capacity of governments to spend sufficiently on health, threatening COVID-19 recovery and health security for all,” said Mamta Murthi, a World Bank vice president, in a press release.
What this means: Governments lacking fiscal firepower will struggle to purchase vaccines and prepare for future pandemics. They will also find it difficult to maintain pre-pandemic growth trajectories in the health sector that allow more people to access basic services, according to the report update.
Experts caution that a thorough economic recovery is not possible without a full global vaccine rollout and other health measures. The latest data indicates “the financing of a full health recovery from countries’ own resources [is] increasingly out of reach,” according to the World Bank.
What’s next: The 52 nations set to see per capita government spending fall short of their 2019 levels are home to 900 million people, with 64.3% living in lower-income countries. Many of these nations were already trailing on efforts to reach universal health coverage, and the additional strains will add to a global divergence between wealthy and low-income states.
According to the document’s lead author, Christoph Kurowski, lower-income countries will face “tough choices” on health spending.
“Wealthier countries have to recognize their interests in this recovery and back it up with resources,” Kurowski told Devex.
About the author
Shabtai Gold
Shabtai Gold is a Senior Reporter based in Washington. He covers multilateral development banks, with a focus on the World Bank, along with trends in development finance. Prior to Devex, he worked for the German Press Agency, dpa, for more than a decade, with stints in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, before relocating to Washington to cover politics and business.
