COVID-19 and Budgetary Space for Health in Developing Economies

Type Document Author Adrian Gheorghe Author Kalipso Chalkidou Author Amanda Glassman Author Tomas Lievens Author Anthony McDonnell URL https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/Gheorghe-Chalkidou-COVID-Budgetary-Space.pdf Publisher Center for Global Development Date 16/07/2020 Language en Abstract KEY MESSAGESFuture of health financing:•The expected economic contraction due to COVID-19 in developing economies is sufficient to put considerable pressure on budgetary space for health spending, which in many settings is already constrained and insufficient for universal health coverage.•The experience of past crises gives hope that health may be protected in budgetary allocations going forward, but even maintaining previous allocation levels will not be enough in the face of growing health needs as a result of COVID-19.•The volume and destination of development assistance for health looks increasingly uncertain, which is likely to be problematic, particularly for lower-middle-income economies.Recommendations:•In the short run, recognise COVID-19 as fundamentally a health crisis that can only be addressed by a surge in health spending financed through the reallocation of currently available resources.•In the medium term, maintain and where possible increase budgetary allocations for health while accelerating investments in more efficient and flexible health spending.•Conduct and routinely update budgetary space for health assessments as part of medium-term expenditure planning to mitigate uncertainties, possibly under the umbrella of a global collab-oration aiming to facilitate the embedding of such analyses in policy decisions.