Selected country experiences
Ethiopia
Health expenditure in Ethiopia, both public and private, is very low relative to the funds needed to address the country's large burden of disease. A primary question is whether Ethiopia can focus additional spending on a limited number of very cost-effective health measures; both because spending is so low and because there are very cost-effective measures available to address the highest priority diseases. Along with this fundamental question, other issues emerge related to managing human resources in the public health system; implementing the government's decentralization reform; allocation of public health spending across region and services, and between recurrent and capital expenses; budget execution; institutional capacity to absorb and effectively use additional funds; and the relationship between the public and private sectors.
The public expenditure review jointly undertaken with the World Bank addressed these issues, by analyzing the effectiveness of public health service expenditure and delivery. It then estimated the financial requirements for significantly reducing the disease burden, with certain issues emerging as critical to the success of future health spending. See the link below, and chapter 4 in particular, for further details.