<br><div class="gmail_quote">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">ESCR-Net</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Escr-net@escr-net.org">Escr-net@escr-net.org</a>></span><br><br><br>
<div style="background-color:#fff">
<span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px; font-weight: bold; ">Poor countries with IMF loans 'divert aid from public health'</span><div><div><div><div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="Tahoma"></font></div>
<div><div><div><div><div><div>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">Oxford University-led research finds signs that tough loan conditions imposed by IMF has led to health aid being diverted for other uses</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt" lang="EN-GB"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/17/imf-health-aid-millennium-development-goals" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/17/imf-health-aid-millennium-development-goals</a></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">Poor countries that borrow from the International Monetary Fund are spending just one cent in every dollar received in health aid on improving the medical care of their populations, according to new Oxford University-led research.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">The study, published in the International Journal of Health Services, said there were signs that the tough loan conditions imposed by the
<a title="More from guardian.co.uk on IMF" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/imf" target="_blank">
IMF</a> were leading to health aid being diverted for other uses.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">In an investigation of more than 100 low and middle-income countries, the report sought to explain why increased aid spending had left many countries well off track to hit the
<a title="The Millennium Development Goals" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/advocacy/millennium-development-goals?INTCMP=SRCH" target="_blank">
United Nations millennium development goals</a> (MDGs) for health, which include a two-thirds reduction in
<a title=" Safe Motherhood" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/journalismcompetition/theme-safe-motherhood?INTCMP=SRCH" target="_blank">
infant mortality and a three-quarter decline in maternal mortality</a>.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">They said one likely explanation was that the curbs on public spending stipulated by the fund were encouraging governments in poor countries to use health aid for other needs. Countries that did not borrow from the IMF were found to have
channelled 45 cents into health systems for every dollar of aid received.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">The study by Dr David Stuckler of Oxford, Dr Sanjay Basu at the University of California, San Francisco and Professor Martin McKee at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine looked at 34 low and middle-income countries that
borrowed from the fund and 101 countries on a similar income that did not rely on IMF support.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">Their analysis showed that health spending in countries borrowing from the IMF in the decade from 1996 to 2006 grew at half the rate of countries that did not have IMF programmes.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">Stuckler said: "Countries seeking IMF support are likely to differ from countries that are not and a request for an IMF loan is often associated with severe economic problems. Nonetheless, even in such circumstances, it is reasonable to
expect aid from donors to have at least some positive impact on health funding, especially given that health needs are often greatest at such times.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">"This study suggests that countries relying on IMF loans are not spending the aid in the way it was intended. A change in loan policies is needed to lift the existing restrictions on finance ministers so they are no longer prevented from
spending health aid on the people that urgently need medical help."</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">According to the research, countries borrowing from the IMF tended to do so when their economies were struggling and needed health aid the most. It concluded that changes are needed to loan conditions so that finance ministers in poor
countries had more "fiscal space" to use health aid for its intended purposes – tackling disease and supporting public health projects.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">The report's authors said the study was limited to measuring pledges of aid rather than a full picture of what was actually paid. But they said the findings offered a "new rationale that reconciles the failure to achieve the MDGs despite
increasing amounts of aid."</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-GB">Aid channelled through governments was associated with lower public spending than relief through private non-governmental organisations, they said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt" lang="EN-GB"></span><span style="color:white"></span> </p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>