Background: Reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health (RMNCH) remains an important public health objective. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), inadequate financial commitment continues to pose a major challenge to improving RMNCH outcomes. Understanding financing gains and potential fiscal space for RMNCH can therefore not be overemphasized.

Objective: This study sought to analyse the potential gains from increased domestic financing as a source for improving RMNCH outcomes in SSA. We also assessed, in addition to the potential gains, the potential fiscal space available for financing RMNCH in SSA.

Methods: Our study used panel econometric techniques to estimate gains from increased health financing in terms of RMNCH. We also reviewed tax system performance as well as debt sustainability to identify fiscal space potentials across countries.

Results: We found significant gains from both domestic and external financing. The estimated elasticities suggest that the gains from domestic public financing were much stronger. The fiscal space options identified include tax revenue performance improvements, improved public financial management, and borrowing, at least in the short to medium term. The results show that fiscal space from improved tax systems ranged from US$34.6 per capita in Uganda to US$310.6 per capita in Nigeria.

Conclusion: This result reinforces calls for increased domestic financing for health through innovations in domestic resource mobilization. Improving the performance of tax systems will be a step in the right direction, with possible long-term gains to the health sector.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716850PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40258-019-00508-0DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

fiscal space
24
domestic financing
12
potential gains
12
financing
8
reproductive maternal
8
maternal neonatal
8
neonatal child
8
child health
8
sub-saharan africa
8
gains
8

Similar Publications

The impact of fiscal decentralization on environmental pollution is a widely debated topic that remains inconclusive. Central to this discussion is whether local governments pursue a "race to the top" or "race to the bottom" competitive strategy. The environmental federalism theory provides insight into this dynamic within federal system but falls short in explaining similar phenomenon in non-federal systems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A need for a comprehensive health financing strategy in Pakistan: an analysis of key health financing issues.

J Health Organ Manag

November 2024

Department of Health System, Pakistan Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Purpose: This study aims to analyze the challenges in financing the healthcare system of Pakistan and develop a comprehensive health financing strategy aimed at achieving universal health coverage (UHC).

Design/methodology/approach: The paper utilizes World Health Organization (WHO) framework on health financing to build the argument. It uses qualitative research design involving focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders, including Federal Board of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Planning Commission, development partners, academia and health ministries at federal and provincial levels, as well as social health insurance entities.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

State capacity and varieties of climate policy.

Nat Commun

November 2024

Travers Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Countries vary in the adoption of sticks and carrots in climate policy. Differences in institutional capacity and fiscal space shape national policies. This matters for the effectiveness of national mitigation efforts and the extent of international conflict over climate policy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bandung, Indonesia, represents the complex interactions between climate variability, basin topography, and deposition processes. This study conducted a long-term spatiotemporal analysis, including pH distribution and pollutant accumulation monitoring, to observe the chemical composition of wet deposition in Bandung as part of the Acid Deposition Monitoring Network in East Asia (EANET). The results revealed that and were the predominant ions, followed by , with their distribution varying across different sites due to local emissions and atmospheric processes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: An adequate health workforce (HWF) is essential to achieving the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), including universal health coverage. However, weak HWF planning and constrained fiscal space for health, among other factors in the WHO Africa Region, has consistently resulted in underinvestment in HWF development, shortages of the HWF at the frontlines of service delivery and unemployment of qualified and trained health workers. This is further compounded by the ever-evolving disease burden and reduced access to essential health services along the continuum of health promotion, disease prevention, diagnostics, curative care, rehabilitation and palliative care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!