Development Aid and Beyond

Picture credit: epSos.de, via Wikimedia Commons

Health and healthcare have historically been major targets for development aid spending by wealthy countries. Over the past 20 years this scenario has evolved as new donors have emerged, including large philanthropic foundations and several emerging economies. At the same time, long-standing donors from OECD countries have adopted ‘beyond aid’ agendas that deploy a wider range of instruments in pursuit of health and development.

We consider the scale and forms of the changes taking place, and the implications for how healthcare systems are organised and run. This has included recent work on the converging roles of high- and middle-income states as investors in overseas healthcare sectors, the growing reach of the financial services sector in these markets, and the shifting operations of international organisations seeking to accommodate these changes. We seek to interpret and explain these changes using concepts such as financialisation and state capitalism, and maintain close connections with the New Frontiers in International Development Finance network based at the University of Warwick.

Publications

On the ‘beyond aid’ transition:

On aid: