NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, December 2, 2016

 A new policy lab opening today at the Duke Global Health Institute will address financing solutions aimed at improving the health of the world’s poor.

Specifically, the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health will focus on three significant gaps in global health financing:

• A gap in donor financing for research and development for poverty-related and neglected diseases, and for other “global functions” of health aid, such as pandemic preparedness. Global functions of aid are those that tackle issues that transcend national borders. Donor financing for health has flat-lined in recent years and too little of it has been directed at these global functions.
• A “middle-income gap,” which arises when countries cross an income threshold and no longer qualify for health aid. Most of the world’s poor now live in pockets of poverty in middle-income countries, and the middle-income gap results in major health disparities in these countries.
• A domestic health financing gap in low- and middle-income countries. Many of these countries are investing too little in health, are not getting good value for money in their health spending, and are relying on people paying for health care out of pocket — a major cause of household poverty.