In recent years, the EU has been committed to reforming its external aid instruments according to aid effectiveness principles established by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005), as well as the Accra Agenda for Action (2008). In particular, attention has been paid to increasing the “ownership” of developing countries’ Development Assistance.

Despite such positive efforts, key social sectors such as health have suffered significant decreases and gaps in EU funding in recent times. Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending in health worldwide decreased by USD 124 million between 2006 and 2007, mainly due to a decrease in European health ODA. Compared to total ODA disbursements, European donors contribute relatively less to health than other international donors. In 2007, the EU-15 and other European donors represented only 50% of health disbursements, while accounting for some 67% of global ODA.

In the light of such trends, there is a perceived need to reassess aid effectiveness principles against sector-specific funding for health. Action for Global Health (AfGH), a network of European health and development organisations, consequently decided to commission DSW to undertake six combined fact-finding and advocacy visits to developing countries in 2010 in order to assess the impact of current aid structures and aid effectiveness principles on health-spending in those countries.

The overall objective of these fact-finding visits is to bring evidence and experience from developing countries to support European advocacy for global health, by producing country-specific policy briefings and disseminating them to key decision- makers and organisations in Europe and in developing countries.