Constraints to Scaling up and Costs

Tracking resources allocated to maternal and newborn health is essential to ensure that governments and their partners deliver on their commitments. A 2009 report by the Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems assesses both the level of financing required to achieve the health MDGs worldwide and the likelihood that this financing will be made available.

Tracking resources is also important to ensure that resources are being used efficiently to save women and babies’ lives. A Background Paper to the 2010 World Health Report assesses the main causes of inefficiency in health systems across the world, and the contribution they each make to wasted health resources.

National health accounts are a recognised tool for tracking health expenditure from government, donor and private sources at the country-level. A 2009 briefing by USAID’S Health Systems 20/20 programme explains why some countries choose to conduct sub-accounts analyses, which track resources allocated to a particular health sector, such as malaria or maternal health.

Civil society organisations sometimes conduct their own analysis of where money is being allocated and whether it is being spent according to plan. The International Budget Partnership (IBP) provides a range of resources to support civil society organisations in this type of work.

Monitoring donor assistance is also important to ensure that commitments are met and resources are used effectively.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation publishes an annual report tracking overall development assistance for health, the latest of which was published in 2011.

Four of the Commission on Information and Accountability (COIA)’s ten recommendations relate to tracking resources.The first report from the Independent Expert Review Group (2012) reviews the extent to which these recommendations have been achieved.