This blog post argues that higher health spending is unlikely to be sustained because of the pandemic’s adverse impact on revenues, other spending pressures, and the resulting deteriorating fiscal position of LLMICs. This suggests that countries will need to undertake policy actions to create additi...

As developing countries recover from the pandemic, they will need to bring their public finances to a more sustainable position by streamlining public spending and strengthening the revenue base. The need to mobilize additional resources has been exacerbated by the recent economic turmoil triggered ...

The war in Ukraine is likely to have a profound impact on budget allocations, at least in developed countries. Pressures to raise military spending have intensified. Given the economic climate, other spending is likely to come under pressure.

We worked with the Joint Learning Network (JLN) Efficiency Collaborative to gain insights from Collaborative members who represent technical staff and decision-makers working at the heart of health benefit packages development and revisions in eleven low-and middle-income countries in Africa and Asi...

African countries will continue to face tough choices on COVID-19 vaccines—we’ve developed a Toolkit that can help.

In a study of 131 IMF programs, I found that IMF conditionality in general helped to shield education and health spending from budget cuts in the short term, particularly during budget negotiations, but it did not succeed in significantly raising spending in relation to GDP over time. In this light,...

In this recent policy paper, we examined 247 studies published between January and March 2021 that contained empirical analyses and covered gender-focused aspects of mental health, COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes and practices, COVID-19 clinical outcomes, maternal and child health, and sexual and repr...