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Leveraging COVID‐19 pandemic response for improved health system financing: Lessons from Ghana
Author(s) -
Novig Jacob,
Tabiri Kwasi Gyabaa
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.3462
Subject(s) - pandemic , fiscal space , developing country , business , covid-19 , economic growth , general partnership , investment (military) , public health , finance , political science , economics , medicine , politics , infectious disease (medical specialty) , debt , nursing , disease , pathology , law
The COVID‐19 pandemic has exposed health system funding challenges across many developing countries. The needed infrastructure to effectively respond to the pandemic was absent in many developing countries. This has resulted in policymakers resorting to various strategies to mobilise sufficient resources in response to the pandemic, especially in the early stages. This paper reviewed Ghana's efforts to mobilise domestic and external resources for the health sector in response to the pandemic. The paper also assessed lessons from these strategies and highlights how these lessons could be leveraged to sustain financing for the health sector. Using evidence from desk reviews, we demonstrate the existence of fiscal space through external sources, partnership with non‐state actors, and effective public financial management (budget space). We also show that the COVID‐19 pandemic presents an important momentum to drive future investment in health infrastructure across developing countries.