International aid provided to developing countries for health is being siphoned off and spent for other purposes instead of boosting health budgets, according to a study.
Instead of supplementing domestic health budgets, aid channelled to governments in countries that receive significant development assistance - mainly in sub-Saharan Africa - has, in part or in whole, replaced it. In some cases, governments withdrew sums totalling more than the health aid received and spent it elsewhere.
For every US dollar spent on health aid, governments moved between 43 cents and $1.14 of their own funds to other priorities, the researchers found. International aid thus increased spending on health by, at best, just over 50 per cent of the aid donated. At worst, aid resulted in a net decrease in health spending.
The findings will re-open the controversy about the role of international aid in the developing world, and how to target it to produce maximum results. The research showed that in countries where most aid was channelled through non-governmental organisations (NGOs), overall government health spending increased.
The study, published in The Lancet, was led by Professor Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Seattle, and Dr Chunling Lu of Harvard University, Boston. The researchers said some countries were missing entire years of data but, despite that, the trends were clear.
Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said yesterday: "It may be entirely rational for governments to move donor money around according to their own priorities. But the risk is that redistributing health money to other sectors may not only diminish donor confidence in aid programmes but also erode taxpayer commitment to government spending on international development."
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Developing countries accused of diverting healthcare aid
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