title: Aid alignment: a longer term lens on trends in development assistance for health in Uganda.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Over the past decade, development assistance for health (DAH) in Uganda has increased dramatically, surpassing the government's own expenditures on health. Yet primary health care and other priorities identified in Uganda's health sector strategic plan remain underfunded.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using data available from the Creditor Reporting System (CRS), National Health Accounts (NHA), and government financial reports, we examined trends in how donors channel DAH and the extent to which DAH is aligned with sector priorities. The study follows the flow of DAH from the donor to the implementing organization, specifying the modality used for disbursing funds and categorizing funds based on program area or support function.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Despite efforts to improve alignment through the formation of a sector-wide approach (SWAp) for health in 1999 and the creation of a fund to pool resources for identified priorities, increasingly DAH is provided as short-term, project-based support for disease-specific initiatives, in particular HIV/AIDS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings highlight the need to better align external resources with country priorities and refocus attention on longer-term sector-wide objectives.
authors: Primary author, P,O, Box 38086, Lusaka, Zambia. estierma@jhsph.edu
authors: Elizabeth
authors: E
authors: Stierman
authors: Freddie
authors: F
authors: Ssengooba
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Bennett
mesh_terms: D015276:Health Care Rationing; D006285:Health Planning / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000639:trends*; D006292:Health Priorities; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D014454:Uganda