A New Golden Age? Proposal for an Innovative Global Health Funding Mechanism for Middle‐Income Countries

Abstract

Abstract Despite economic growth and increased global commitment to health financing in the past decades, the health needs of some of the world's most vulnerable people remain overlooked. In particular, middle‐income countries (MICs) often face the conundrum of receiving reduced development assistance for health (DAH) while still being home to most of the world's poor and the majority of the global burden. We believe that this reflects shortcomings in the global DAH system's architecture, which operate on principles that do not respond well to current realities. Hence, we propose a novel mechanism for international health financing and action that specifically addresses the newly emerged strengths and needs of MICs. The Incentives for Health (I4H) Alliance will offer MICs flexible incentives in exchange for their making and meeting health‐related commitments in their countries. Countries can set their own health targets, in alignment with the existing Sustainable Development Goals' framework, and those that achieve them will be subsequently rewarded with financial or other incentives, which are not restricted to the health sector. We believe that the I4H Alliance will promote greater MIC involvement towards global health financing both as incentive providers and recipients; encourage collaboration between Ministries of Health and Finance; and provide a needed complement to traditional DAH mechanisms. We advocate for the creation of I4H at a MICs‐oriented financing institution such as the New Development Bank. We intend I4H to spark new thinking around innovative health financing approaches to ensure that the “golden age” of global health remains ahead.