Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Dec 12;17(12):e0277799.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277799. eCollection 2022.

Tracking development assistance for health from India to low- and middle-income countries, 2009-2020

Modhurima Moitra  1 , Nishali K Patel  2   3 , Ian Cogswell  2 , Dweep I Chanana  4 , Emilie Maddison  2 , Kyle Simpson  2 , Hayley Stutzman  2 , Yingxi Zhao  2   5 , Golsum Tsakalos  2 , Joseph Dieleman  2   3 , Angela E Micah  2   3
Affiliations

Tracking development assistance for health from India to low- and middle-income countries, 2009-2020

Modhurima Moitra et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Development assistance for health (DAH) is an important source of financing for health for many low-income and some middle-income countries. Most DAH has predominantly been contributed by high-income countries. However, in the context of economic progress and changing global priorities, DAH contributions from countries of the Global South such as India have gained importance. In this paper, we estimate DAH contributed by India between 2009 and 2020.

Methods: We leveraged data from budgetary documents, databases, and financial reports of the Ministry of External Affairs and multilateral organizations to estimate DAH contributions. The proportions of development assistance that go towards health in major recipient countries were estimated and reported by recipient country and year.

Results: Between 2009 and 2020, DAH contributed by India to bilateral and multilateral partners totaled $206.0 million. South Asian countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar received the most DAH from India. DAH contributed relative to DAH received ranged from 1.42% in 2009 to 5.26% in 2018, the latest year with country-level data. Health focus areas prioritized by India included technical training and innovation, health care infrastructure support, and supply of medications and medical equipment.

Conclusion: India is an important development partner to many countries-particularly to those in the South Asian region. India's DAH allocation strategy prioritizes contributions toward neighboring countries in the South Asia region in several health focus areas. Detailed project-level data are needed to estimate DAH contributions from India with greater precision and accuracy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Framework of India DAH dissemination.
Note: Green indicates data that have been included in our estimation of DAH, whereas red indicates data that have not been included due to limited availability.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Estimated annual DAH contributed by India, 2009–2020.
Note: Annual DAH reported here includes bilateral grants and multilateral contributions. Multilateral contributions included both annual contributions and replenishments.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Bilateral DAH received and contributed by India, 2009–2018.
Note: This figure uses data on DAH received by India from Micah et al. (2021) which reports DAH received by India up to 2018.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Micah AE, Su Y, Bachmeier SD, Chapin A, Cogswell IE, Crosby SW, et al.. Health sector spending and spending on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and development assistance for health: progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 3. The Lancet. 2020;396: 693–724. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30608-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Micah AE, Cogswell IE, Cunningham B, Ezoe S, Harle AC, Maddison ER, et al.. Tracking development assistance for health and for COVID-19: a review of development assistance, government, out-of-pocket, and other private spending on health for 204 countries and territories, 1990–2050. The Lancet. 2021;398: 1317–1343. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01258-7 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Woods N. The shifting politics of foreign aid. Int Aff. 2005;81: 393–409.
    1. Molenaers N, Dellepiane S, Faust J. Political Conditionality and Foreign Aid. World Dev. 2015;75: 2–12. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.04.001 - DOI
    1. Bermeo SB. Aid allocation and targeted development in an increasingly connected world. Int Organ. 2017;71: 735–766.

Publication types