title: Tracking aid flows for development assistance for health.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The global architecture for providing development assistance for health (DAH) has become increasing complex in the last decade, with many new funding agencies entering the health sector. This study presents a detailed picture of European Union (EU) and EU member state originating DAH between 2006 and 2009; with a specific focus on assessing the extent of complementarity of development assistance sourced from the EU.
  
  
  METHODS
  We use a combination of internal EU reporting systems, OECD-DAC creditor reporting system data and other data sources to estimate DAH flows. Our method uses a line by line project assessment in order to identify and categorise DAH flows.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings show a complex picture of DAH flows--from source, to channel of assistance, to channel of implementation--that is hard to track at the global level, and rarely comprehensively and regularly tracked at the country level. While the majority of EU DAH is focused on low and lower middle income countries there also remains much disparity between countries; and further analysis is required to better understand whether these imbalances are fair and efficient; or result in overlap. We also recommend investment in quality control of DAH tracking internally within donor agencies, and investment in the development of country based systems in order to enable countries and development partners better harmonise DAH flows.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health, SAME Modelling and Economics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK; anna.vassall@lshtm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vassall
authors.affiliation: Social Development Group, BMB Mott Macdonald, Arnhem, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shotton
authors.affiliation: Social Development Group, BMB Mott Macdonald, Arnhem, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Olena Klein
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Reshetnyk
authors.affiliation: Social Development Group, BMB Mott Macdonald, Arnhem, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lindsey
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hasanaj-Goossens
authors.affiliation: HLSP Mott Macdonald, London, UK.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Weil
authors.affiliation: Cambridge Education, Mott Macdonald, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Jawaad
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vohra
authors.affiliation: Social Development Group, BMB Mott Macdonald, Arnhem, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Notburga
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Timmermans
authors.affiliation: Social Development Group, BMB Mott Macdonald, Arnhem, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Lluis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vinyals
authors.affiliation: HLSP Mott Macdonald, London, UK.
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Andre
mesh_terms: D001459:Bangladesh; D002050:Burkina Faso; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D003906:Developing Countries; D004534:Egypt; D005062:European Union / Q000458:organization & administration; D005376:Financial Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D009073:Mozambique
keywords: aid; development assistance to health; expenditure tracking