General budget support – has it bene­fited the health sector?

Overview

Ministries of Health in low- and middle-income countries have traditionally relied on project support as the main aid modality to support their development needs. Some major development partners and donors, such as the World Bank, the United Kingdom and the European Union, have provided increased assistance through an alternative aid modality since the late 1990s: general budget support (GBS). Even before, multilateral agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the development banks provided budget support in the form of concessional credits and grants, although these were labelled as balance of payments support or structural adjustment programmes. What has changed over the last decade is the implementation and design of budget support.

This report is part of a series, The World Health Report 2010 Background Papers, which were written to inform the process of developing the key messages of the World Health Report 2010: Health systems financing: The path to universal coverage.