Watch: What's next for global health financing trends?

Global health spending had already been increasing for almost two decades before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. In a conversation hosted by Devex, Pro Funding Editor Raquel Alcega spoke with Pape Gaye, former CEO and president emeritus at IntraHealth International, and Joseph Dieleman, an associate professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, about the latest trends in health financing data and lessons learned for development implementers. Highlights from this event include: • How health donor financing has increased over time. The first decade of the millennium saw a significant increase in development assistance for health, with resources for HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis seeing annual growth rates at above 20%, according to Dieleman. In the following decade, health financing growth rates decreased to 1%-2% annually, and demands started to emerge around value for money. While there is a strong desire to identify the return on investment for health systems strengthening, Dieleman argued that this is much more challenging than measuring the number of bed nets needed to prevent malaria, for example, in vertical programs. • Lessons for organizations working on global health projects. Development implementers channeling donor financing grew substantially in recent years as well. For instance, IntraHealth’s annual revenue went from $18 million in the early 2000s to roughly $120 million when Gaye stepped down as CEO. On the other hand, there has been confusion and a lack of absorptive capacity for those on the receiving end, Gaye argued. “Money alone is not enough. ... We need more health for the money,” he said. • What’s next? Unveiling part of his latest research — to be published in the coming months — Dieleman shared that 2020 saw the largest year-over-year increase in health disbursements, both in absolute and relative terms. 2021 and future years will see a focus on how the increased resources from 2020 are disbursed, as well as on financing for vaccines and the impacts of the COVID-19 economic crisis on donor countries' budgets. • What are the effects of social justice movements and calls to decolonize aid? The development community needs to reflect and embrace changes that technologists, social entrepreneurs, and others are now bringing to the space, according to Gaye. This might be a difficult period for some of those working in development, but “confusion is the gateway to light,” he said. Have follow-up questions? Send them to events@devex.com.