Has donor prioritization of HIV/AIDS displaced aid for other health

[Guest guest]

Has donor prioritization of HIV/AIDS displaced aid for other health

issues?

Shiffman, Associate Professor of Public Administration, The

Maxwell School of Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244–1020, USA.

Tel: +1 315–443– 4928. Fax: +1 315–443–9734.

E-mail: jrshiffm@...

Advocates for many developing-world health and population issues have

expressed concern that the high level of donor attention to HIV/AIDS

is displacing funding for their own concerns. Even organizations

dedicated to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment have raised this

issue. However, the issue of donor displacement has not been

evaluated empirically.

This paper attempts to do so by considering donor funding for four

historically prominent health agendas—HIV/AIDS, population, health

sector development and infectious disease control—over the years 1992

to 2005. The paper employs funding data from the Organization for

Economic ation and Development's (OECD) Development Assistance

Committee, supplemented by data from other sources.

Several trends indicate possible displacement effects, including

HIV/AIDS' rapidly growing share of total health aid, a concurrent

global stagnation in population aid, the priority HIV/AIDS control

receives in US funding, and HIV/AIDS aid levels in several sub-

Saharan African states that approximate or exceed the entirety of

their national health budgets. On the other hand, aggregate donor

funding for health and population quadrupled between 1992 and 2005,

allowing for funding growth for some health issues even as HIV/AIDS

acquired an increasingly prominent place in donor health agendas.

Overall, the evidence indicates that displacement is likely

occurring, but that aggregate increases in global health aid may have

mitigated some of the crowding-out effects.

Key Words: Donor aid, HIV/AIDS, health priority-setting, population,

health sector development

Has donor prioritization of HIV/AIDS displaced aid for other health

issues?

Shiffman. Health Policy Plan. published 21 December 2007,

10.1093/heapol/czm045

http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/czm045v1?papetoc