Fostering fiscal dialogue between finance and health

The extent to which a government can sustainably generate additional public resources for a specific purpose (known as its fiscal space) directly impacts the health sector budget.  For planning beyond the mere short term, health authorities benefit from understanding the health budget within the context of broader economic and fiscal trends. While some drivers of fiscal space for health result from activities under the finance authorities (sustaining economic growth or generating general tax revenues), health authorities are responsible for the efficient use of allocated resources.

Within the nexus of the health and overall government budget, both authorities play a role in determining the budget priority for health relative to other sector needs. With a view of aligning fiscal space for health and domestic budget processes, WHO works to enhance dialogue on this topic between health and finance authorities by:

• Developing guidance material on assessing fiscal space for health;
• Sharing knowledge on sustainable domestic financing for health (Montreux Global Collaborative Agenda on Fiscal Space; Public Financial Management and Health Financing; Regional Conferences on sustainable financing for health with finance and health representatives);
• Providing country support on sustainable domestic resource mobilization for health while effectively transitioning from external aid.