Analysis of the influence of International Monetary Fund policies on health systems strengthening in low-resource countries

Throughout the developing world, international organizations and country governments are actively working to increase the resources available to respond to the global disease burden and to ensure that Ministries of Health have the capacity to provide services to their populations. While foreign aid has increased dramatically in recent years, many governments have faced barriers in expanding public sector health spending.

Civil society organizations, global development policy think tanks and the International Monetary Fund's own Independent Evaluation Office have identified restrictive fiscal and monetary policies as being important in influencing governments' decisions to grow their economies. Ultimately these polices influence the overall size of national budgets which affect the resources that are available for health and interfere with governments' ability to plan and implement health system strengthening efforts. Foreign assistance in some countries has been redirected to domestic financing, undermining additionality of donor health financing. In particular efforts that require long-term investment such as the expansion of the public-sector health workforce and the scale-up of programs to increase coverage through the network of government health facilities are affected.

This presentation will summarize findings from the international policy and economic literature about the influence of unnecessarily restrictive financial and monetary policies on budgets in low-resource countries and present opportunities for expanding national budgets. Advocacy experiences and future opportunities will be discussed for increased involvement by the public health sector in advocating for governments in low-income countries to have the autonomy to define monetary and financial policies most appropriate for their specific situation.