Philanthropist organizations are making an impact in shifting the focus of health research funding towards developing countries but the rich-poor gap remains huge, said a report published Thursday.
Annual global spending on health research and development reached 125,8 billion US dollar in 2003, up from 105,9 billion dollar in 2001, said the report released by the Global Forum for Health Research.
– According to our recent tracking, the amount is going up by about 10 billion a year, said Stephen Matlin, co-author of the report which was made public in Cairo ahead of the organizations annual meeting.
The Geneva-based organization is the only one to collect data on global health funding and statistics generally take two years to compile as they are not readily provided by governments.
According to the report, 45 percent of funding comes from the public sector, 48 percent from the private for-profit sector and seven percent from not-for-profit organizations.
Matlin said a key issue was the fate of developing countries, where the traditional burden of infectious (smitsomme) diseases is being compounded by the recent spread of the non-communicable diseases that have long been the priority of developed countries.
– There used to be an argument that better health would be a natural by-product of economic development, a trickle-down theory that if countries get richer, people get healthier, Matlin said.
– It is now much more clearly understood that ill health is actually a break on development and greatly reduces GDP growth in countries that suffer serious health problems, he explained.
The organization is funded by the World Bank, the Rockefeller foundation and the governments of Canada, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Mexico and India.
In related news, A network of European charities, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was launched Friday to lobby governments and the private sector for more action to improve healthcare in developing nations.
The European Network for Global Health, launched simultaneously in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, has a remit “to urge rich country governments to do more”, according to the organisers.
The network, coordinated by ActionAid International, is funded by a 8,5 million euro grant from the Gates Foundation. The new health campaigning network says that European governments must act quickly to help achieve the health Millennium Development Goals by the target date of 2015.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
