IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v105y2014icp38-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Sector Wide Approaches for health aid delivery lead to ‘donor-flight’? A comparison of 46 low-income countries

Author

Listed:
  • Sweeney, Rohan
  • Mortimer, Duncan
  • Johnston, David W.

Abstract

Sector Wide Approaches (SWAp) emerged during the 1990s as a new policy mechanism for aid delivery. Eschewing many features of traditional project-based aid, SWAps give greater control of aid allocation to recipient countries. Some critics have questioned whether reducing a donor's level of influence over aid allocation might lead to a decrease in donor contributions. While some qualitative evaluations have described the level of fund pooling and donor participation in SWAps, no previous study has empirically examined this potential ‘donor-flight’ response to health SWAp implementation. This paper utilises a uniquely compiled dataset of 46 low-income countries over 1990–2009 and a variety of panel data regression models to estimate the impact of health SWAp implementation on levels of health aid. Results suggest that amongst 16 especially poor low-income countries, SWAp implementation is associated with significant decreases in health aid levels compared with non-implementers. This suggests donors are not indifferent to how their contributions are allocated by recipients, and that low-income countries considering a SWAp may need to weigh the benefits of greater control of aid allocations against the possibility of reduced aid income.

Suggested Citation

  • Sweeney, Rohan & Mortimer, Duncan & Johnston, David W., 2014. "Do Sector Wide Approaches for health aid delivery lead to ‘donor-flight’? A comparison of 46 low-income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 38-46.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:105:y:2014:i:c:p:38-46
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.12.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953613007181
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.12.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hill, Peter S., 2002. "The rhetoric of sector-wide approaches for health development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 1725-1737, June.
    2. Knack, Stephen & Rahman, Aminur, 2007. "Donor fragmentation and bureaucratic quality in aid recipients," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 176-197, May.
    3. Alesina, Alberto & Dollar, David, 2000. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 33-63, March.
    4. David Roodman, 2009. "A Note on the Theme of Too Many Instruments," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(1), pages 135-158, February.
    5. Peabody, John W., 1996. "Economic reform and health sector policy: Lessons from structural adjustment programs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 823-835, September.
    6. Denise Vaillancourt, 2009. "Do Health Sector-Wide Approaches Achieve Results?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28064, December.
    7. David Fielding, 2011. "Health aid and governance in developing countries," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(7), pages 757-769, July.
    8. Hansen, Henrik & Tarp, Finn, 2001. "Aid and growth regressions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 547-570, April.
    9. David Roodman, 2009. "How to do xtabond2: An introduction to difference and system GMM in Stata," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 9(1), pages 86-136, March.
    10. Kosack, Stephen, 2003. "Effective Aid: How Democracy Allows Development Aid to Improve the Quality of Life," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-22, January.
    11. Sara E. Helms & Brian L. Scott & Jeremy P. Thornton, 2012. "Choosing to give more: experimental evidence on restricted gifts and charitable behaviour," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(8), pages 745-748, May.
    12. Daly, George & Giertz, Fred J, 1972. "Welfare Economics and Welfare Reform," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 131-138, March.
    13. Tierney, Michael J. & Nielson, Daniel L. & Hawkins, Darren G. & Roberts, J. Timmons & Findley, Michael G. & Powers, Ryan M. & Parks, Bradley & Wilson, Sven E. & Hicks, Robert L., 2011. "More Dollars than Sense: Refining Our Knowledge of Development Finance Using AidData," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 1891-1906.
    14. Esser, Daniel E. & Keating Bench, Kara, 2011. "Does Global Health Funding Respond to Recipients' Needs? Comparing Public and Private Donors' Allocations in 2005-2007," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1271-1280, August.
    15. Curtin, T. R. C. & Nelson, E. A. S., 1999. "Economic and health efficiency of education funding policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(11), pages 1599-1611, June.
    16. Branas-Garza, Pablo, 2006. "Poverty in dictator games: Awakening solidarity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 306-320, July.
    17. Halvorsen, Robert & Palmquist, Raymond, 1980. "The Interpretation of Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 474-475, June.
    18. Lordan, Grace & Tang, Kam Ki & Carmignani, Fabrizio, 2011. "Has HIV/AIDS displaced other health funding priorities? Evidence from a new dataset of development aid for health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(3), pages 351-355, August.
    19. Sundewall, Jesper & Sahlin-Andersson, Kerstin, 2006. "Translations of health sector SWAps--A comparative study of health sector development cooperation in Uganda, Zambia and Bangladesh," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 277-287, May.
    20. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    21. Mishra, Prachi & Newhouse, David, 2009. "Does health aid matter?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 855-872, July.
    22. Chong, Alberto & Gradstein, Mark, 2008. "What determines foreign aid? The donors' perspective," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 1-13, August.
    23. Janet Currie & Firouz Gahvari, 2008. "Transfers in Cash and In-Kind: Theory Meets the Data," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(2), pages 333-383, June.
    24. Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart & Mastruzzi, Massimo, 2010. "The worldwide governance indicators : methodology and analytical issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5430, The World Bank.
    25. Trumbull, William N & Wall, Howard J, 1994. "Estimating Aid-Allocation Criteria with Panel Data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(425), pages 876-882, July.
    26. Wilson, Sven E., 2011. "Chasing Success: Health Sector Aid and Mortality," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(11), pages 2032-2043.
    27. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rohan Sweeney & Duncan Mortimer, 2016. "Has the Swap Influenced Aid Flows in the Health Sector?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(5), pages 559-577, May.
    2. Pallas, Sarah Wood & Ruger, Jennifer Prah, 2017. "Effects of donor proliferation in development aid for health on health program performance: A conceptual framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 177-186.
    3. Maame Esi Woode & Duncan Mortimer & Rohan Sweeney, 2021. "The impact of health sector‐wide approaches on aid effectiveness and infant mortality," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 826-844, July.
    4. Hennessy, Jack & Mortimer, Duncan & Sweeney, Rohan & Woode, Maame Esi, 2023. "Donor versus recipient preferences for aid allocation: A systematic review of stated-preference studies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rohan Sweeney & Duncan Mortimer, 2016. "Has the Swap Influenced Aid Flows in the Health Sector?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(5), pages 559-577, May.
    2. Admasu Asfaw Maruta & Rajabrata Banerjee, 2021. "Does energy aid improve energy efficiency in developing countries?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 355-388, July.
    3. Maruta, Admasu Asfaw, 2019. "Can aid for financial sector buy financial development?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Maruta, Admasu Asfaw, 2019. "Trade aid, institutional quality, and trade," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 25-37.
    5. Maame Esi Woode & Duncan Mortimer & Rohan Sweeney, 2021. "The impact of health sector‐wide approaches on aid effectiveness and infant mortality," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(5), pages 826-844, July.
    6. Lee, Suejin A. & Lim, Jae-Young, 2014. "Does International Health Aid Follow Recipients’ Needs? Extensive and Intensive Margins of Health Aid Allocation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 104-120.
    7. Han, Lu & Koenig-Archibugi, Mathias, 2015. "Aid Fragmentation or Aid Pluralism? The Effect of Multiple Donors on Child Survival in Developing Countries, 1990–2010," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 344-358.
    8. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2020. "Trade Openness and Diversification of External Financial Flows for Development: An Empirical Analysis," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 9(1), pages 22-57, June.
    9. Juergen Bitzer & Erkan Goeren, 2018. "Foreign Aid and Subnational Development: A Grid Cell Analysis," Working Papers V-407-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2018.
    10. Mohamed Boly, 2018. "CO 2 mitigation in developing countries: the role of foreign aid," Working Papers halshs-01740881, HAL.
    11. Montes-Rojas, Gabriel V., 2013. "Can Poor Countries Lobby for More US Bilateral Aid?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 77-87.
    12. Tim Röthel, 2023. "Budget support to the health sector—The right choice for strong institutions? Evidence from panel data," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(2), pages 735-770, May.
    13. Kathavate, Jay & Mallik, Girijasankar, 2012. "The impact of the Interaction between institutional quality and aid volatility on growth: theory and evidence," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 716-724.
    14. Yousuf, Ahmed Sadek, 2012. "Assessing Impact of Health Oriented Aid on Infant Mortality Rates," EconStor Preprints 67391, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    15. Sebastian Galiani & Stephen Knack & Lixin Colin Xu & Ben Zou, 2017. "The effect of aid on growth: evidence from a Quasi-experiment," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-33, March.
    16. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2017. "Multilateral Trade Liberalization, Export Share in the International Trade Market and Aid for Trade," Journal of International Commerce, Economics and Policy (JICEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 8(03), pages 1-35, October.
    17. Brun, Jean-François & Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2017. "Does trade openness contribute to driving financing flows for development?," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2017-06, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    18. Minoiu, Camelia & Reddy, Sanjay G., 2010. "Development aid and economic growth: A positive long-run relation," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 27-39, February.
    19. Fabrizio Carmignani & Grace Lordan & Kam Ki Tang, 2012. "Does Donor Assistance For Hiv Respond To Media Pressure?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(S1), pages 18-32, June.
    20. Ahsan Kibria & Reza Oladi & Ryan Bosworth, 2021. "Political economy of aid allocation: The case of Arab donors," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(8), pages 2460-2495, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:105:y:2014:i:c:p:38-46. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.