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The return of austerity imperils global health
Recognising the world’s lack of preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic, international organisations like the World Health Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund are calling for extensive additional funding to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response systems in low-income and...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9944267/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36804732 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-011620 |
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author | Stubbs, Thomas Kentikelenis, Alexandros Gabor, Daniela Ghosh, Jayati McKee, Martin |
author_facet | Stubbs, Thomas Kentikelenis, Alexandros Gabor, Daniela Ghosh, Jayati McKee, Martin |
author_sort | Stubbs, Thomas |
collection | PubMed |
description | Recognising the world’s lack of preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic, international organisations like the World Health Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund are calling for extensive additional funding to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response systems in low-income and middle-income countries, including through domestic resource mobilisation. This article examines the prospects of national health budgets increasing in such a context, drawing on new International Monetary Fund projections on public spending around the world. We show that by 2024 public spending will be lower than the 2010s average for almost half of all low-income and middle-income countries. A key driver of this new wave of austerity is the dramatic increase in public spending dedicated to repaying external debt—underpinned by growing debt stocks, US interest rates rises, and commodity price hikes. As in earlier crises, the stage is set for a situation where population health deteriorates—via compound effects of the pandemic and widespread economic hardship—while public health services required to tackle increased need are facing steep cuts. We conclude by considering what can be done to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9944267 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99442672023-02-23 The return of austerity imperils global health Stubbs, Thomas Kentikelenis, Alexandros Gabor, Daniela Ghosh, Jayati McKee, Martin BMJ Glob Health Analysis Recognising the world’s lack of preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic, international organisations like the World Health Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund are calling for extensive additional funding to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response systems in low-income and middle-income countries, including through domestic resource mobilisation. This article examines the prospects of national health budgets increasing in such a context, drawing on new International Monetary Fund projections on public spending around the world. We show that by 2024 public spending will be lower than the 2010s average for almost half of all low-income and middle-income countries. A key driver of this new wave of austerity is the dramatic increase in public spending dedicated to repaying external debt—underpinned by growing debt stocks, US interest rates rises, and commodity price hikes. As in earlier crises, the stage is set for a situation where population health deteriorates—via compound effects of the pandemic and widespread economic hardship—while public health services required to tackle increased need are facing steep cuts. We conclude by considering what can be done to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-02-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9944267/ /pubmed/36804732 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-011620 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made. See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Analysis Stubbs, Thomas Kentikelenis, Alexandros Gabor, Daniela Ghosh, Jayati McKee, Martin The return of austerity imperils global health |
title | The return of austerity imperils global health |
title_full | The return of austerity imperils global health |
title_fullStr | The return of austerity imperils global health |
title_full_unstemmed | The return of austerity imperils global health |
title_short | The return of austerity imperils global health |
title_sort | return of austerity imperils global health |
topic | Analysis |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9944267/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36804732 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2022-011620 |
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