2014 Health and Social Protection Analysis

Sweden’s Development Assistance for Health – Policy Options to Support the Global Health 2035 Goals

Gavin Yamey, Helen Saxenian, Robert Hecht, Jesper Sundewall, Dean Jamison

In 2013 the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health (CIH) published Global Health 2035: A World Converging within a Generation. The report laid out a series of opportunities for donors, low-income countries, and lower middle-income countries to achieve dramatic gains in health by 2035.

The Swedish Expert Group for Aid Studies commissioned our study group to review Swedish development assistance for health in order to propose options that could enable Sweden to align its health aid with emerging needs and priorities and to potentially set an example for other donor organizations.

The report was presented during the seminar How Can Swedish Development Aid Contribute to a Grand Convergence in Global Health by 2035?

Main findings
The analysis has 7 key messages:

  • Classifying development assistance for health by its functions helps to articulate the roles of health aid in the post-2015 era.
  • Swedish bilateral development assistance for health and multilateral development assistance for health mostly target local functions.
  • Economic growth means some countries may graduate from Swedish development assistance for health by 2035.
  • There are likely to be five key global health challenges for the period 2015-2035.
  • Sweden can play a key role in tackling these challenges, given its impacts and strengths in global health.
  • Significant additional Swedish development assistance for health is likely to be available from 2015 to 2035.
  • Investing this additional Swedish development assistance for health in specific global, local and “glocal” functions could help reach the Global Health 2035 goals.

Authors
Dean Jamison, University of California, San Francisco
Gavin Yamey, University of California, San Francisco
Helen Saxenian, Results of Development, Washington
Robert Hecht, Results of Development, Washington
Jesper Sundewall, EBA