Recommended reading
Harmonization and MDGs: a perspective from Tanzania and Uganda
Has donor harmonisation led to improvements in health outcomes?
Authors:
; High-Level Forum on the Health Millennium Development Goals
Publisher:
High-Level Forum on the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), 2003
Harmonisation through the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) and increased budget support has increased the resources available to the health sector over the past five years. This draft paper from the High-Level Forum on the Health Millennium Development Goals looks at the examples of Tanzania and Uganda. The paper notes that different ways of governments and their development partners doing business together have led to increased health sector outputs in both countries, but not yet to measurable outcomes in all health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The paper concludes that improvements in outcome (as measured by the MDG targets) need more time to materialise and may need focused cross-sectoral interventions (to address, for example, maternal mortality, child mortality, malaria prevalence) as well as broader socioeconomic development (such as child mortality). SWAp and other harmonisation efforts have improved efficiency and equity in resource allocation. However, most development partners agree that substantially more financial resources are needed for health. [adapted from author]
