Analysis of International Monetary Fund policies on public health systems: A presentation of multi-country case studies

In recent years, increased levels of foreign aid for health, HIV/AIDS, and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have become available. At the same time, questions have arisen about International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programs agreed to with finance ministries of borrowing countries and their impact on public sector health spending.

Some questions revolve around the impact of such policies on countries' abilities to accept and spend these new foreign aid inflows. Other questions speak to whether or not such aid can be used for general budget support as opposed to stand-alone vertical projects and programs and/or public employees' wages. Additionally, deeper questions arise about the neoliberal development model that has characterized foreign aid lending over the last 25 years, and specifically, if the fiscal and monetary policies in IMF loan programs are justified considering the existing studies in the economics literature and if they are unnecessarily restrictive towards public spending.

Specifically at issue is if these policies have undermined otherwise higher levels of economic growth (GDP output), and are therefore needlessly reducing the amount of public spending to investment in health system strengthening that could otherwise occur under less restrictive policies. Also explored are the impacts of these policies on the resources available for governments to invest in the expansion of the public health workforce.

ActionAid International's current research and multi-country case studies examining these issues will be presented.