Home > Tools > Data Visualizations

Government health expenditures as source and development assistance for health to government and non-governmental agents by region (Developing countries), 1995-2006

Public financing of health plays bigger role than development assistance for health

Spending by developing countries on health more than doubled over 12 years to reach more than $200 billion in 2006. 
 
In this data visualization, you can see the relationship between development assistance for health and domestic health spending. Because the WHO and IMF datasets are different for certain countries, we present the results from both. 
 
The estimates on health spending are from research published in The Lancet in April 2010. 
 
For more ideas how to explore go to the How to Visualize tab and the Data Stories tab. 
 

Data Visualization

How to ExploreData StoriesTerms Defined
  • Use the drop-down menus to select different indicators or countries.
  • Notice that the y-axis zooms in and out to be appropriate to the selected data.
  • Toggle back and forth between GHE-S data derived from IMF or WHO numbers; DAH-G and DAH-NG stay the same.

 

 

  • To see the relative difference between what countries spend on their own health projects and what outside funders spend in development assistance, choose different regions of the world and see government health expenditure (GHE) in blue and development assistance for health (DAH) in brown. 
     
  • The contrast btween government spending and development assistance can be seen sharply in sub-Saharan Africa. Choose “DAH-G and GHE-S” in the menu bar on the left, indicating all development assistance for health that went directly to governments and all spending from governments on health that came from the country’s own revenues. Now choose “All Sub-Saharan Africa” in the menu bar on the right. See how government spending accounts for more than $16 billion, while DAH accounts for roughly $2 billion. 
     
  • The differences between the IMF and the WHO financial datasets underscore the need for more uniform reporting of government spending on health. To see these differences, choose “DAH-NG, DAH-G, GHE-S,” which includes both DAH to government and non-government recipients such as charities. Then choose “Oceania.” Click between “IMF” and “WHO” to see how the trends differ between the two datasets. For example, the IMF shows a steep decline in funding in 1998 while the WHO shows an increase in funding.
 

 

GHE-A: Government health spending as agent

GHE-S: Government health spending as source

DAH-G: Development assistance for health disbursed to government

DAH-NG: Development assistance for health disbursed to non-governmental sectors

GDP: Gross domestic product per capita in constant US dollars

GGE: General government spending

Related Visualizations & other Tools

Data Visualizations
Government health expenditures and development assistance for health spending by country (Developing countries), 1995-2005

Visualize our initial analysis of raw and estimated government health expenditures (GHE), development assistance for health, and other indicators.

Interact with the tool
Percentage change in government health expenditures as source as a share of general government expenditures for all developing countries during 1999-2002 compared with 2003-2006, maps

Many countries in the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia show greater government commitment to health over time, but many countries in sub-Saharan Africa show decreasing commitment, with important exceptions.

Interact with the tool

Related Publications & Presentations

Research Articles

Lu C, Schneider MT, Gubbins P, Leach-Kemon K, Jamison D, Murray CJL. Public financing of health in developing countries: a cross-national systematic analysis. The Lancet. 2010 Apr 17; 375:1375–1387.

Read the Article
View the Publication Summary and Data

Related Content

Data Visualization
Visualizations & other Tools
Publications & Presentations
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
2301 Fifth Ave., Suite 600, Seattle, WA 98121, USA
Tel: +1.206.897.2800 Fax: +1.206.897.2899
© 2013 University of Washington