Report Documents Rise in Official Development Assistance

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 7

ABSTRACT In the last decade, official development assistance from donor countries has been increasing, as has the proportion of this assistance going to health, according to a report released by the Global Fund.

In the last decade, official development assistance from donor countries has been increasing, as has the proportion of this assistance going to health. This information is contained in a report recently released by the Global Fund.

In 2008, development assistance reached its highest level ever at $121.5 billion, up from $53.7 billion in 2000. In terms of the proportion of gross national income (GNI) of donor countries, development assistance rose from 0.22% in 2000 to 0.31% in 2008. Of the total development assistance, 70 percent was provided through bilateral organisations, with the remaining 30 percent disbursed through multilateral organisations.

The proportion of official development assistance that was earmarked for health increased from less than 10% in 2000 to 17.6% in 2007. Over this period, development assistance for health (DAH) grew at an annual rate of 17%. In dollar terms, DAH went from $10.7 billion in 2000 to $21.8 billion in 2007.

The report says that the increase in DAH in the last decade is attributable to a significant rise in funding from the U.S. through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI); and large flows of resources from new global health actors such as the Global Fund, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2007, the Global Fund, GAVI, the Gates Foundation and NGOs accounted for over 40% percent of total DAH.

Sub-Saharan Africa has benefited significantly from the increases in DAH. Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of global DAH grew from 33% in 1990 to over 50% in 2007.

Editor’s note%3