Health in Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action

2020 report

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In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has become the greatest threat to world health and could seriously regress the progress made in highly divergent fields.

Moreover, the crisis has only made existing health problems worse, highlighting even more sharply the need to advance in Sustainable Development Goal 3, related to health and well-being, and to achieve Universal Health Coverage.

Unfortunately, the present report demonstrates how only five out of the 29 countries from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) have met the objective to allocate 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) to Official Development Assistance.

In 2019, Spanish Aid represented 0.21% of the country’s GNI, insufficient for reaching the said 0.7%, while the importance placed on Cooperation continues to drop and stands at 2.39% of the total. Spain’s Humanitarian Aid is also at a bare minimum, despite a slight increase, reaching 62 million euros and representing 2.35% of the Aid total. In short, a long way from the 10% commitment.

COVID-19

The pandemic could seriously regress progress made in reducing poverty and hunger, accentuate humanitarian crises and inequalities, and make human rights and democratic governability go backwards.

As a health emergency, it is affecting every country in the world and bringing down health systems.

No system on its own has been enough to stop the pandemic, exposing a lack of preparation to deal with global health emergencies.

 

Recommendations

Governments have to put people and the planet ahead of other interests, and there must be a deeper commitment by all countries to the 2030 Agenda, a frame of reference for the much-desired “new normal” and an integral and equitable response to global problems such those related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vaccines

The coronavirus crisis is a reminder of the importance of defending the human right to public health care and of considering vaccines as a global public asset.

Therefore, initiatives have been set up globally to work with vaccine manufacturers in order to streamline the development, production and equal access for all countries to safe and effective treatments and vaccines against COVID-19.

If not, the virus will continue to kill and recovery around the world will be delayed.

 

Recommendations

The research, production and distribution of vaccines must be one-hundred-percent transparent and the vaccine price must be accessible for everyone who needs it.

World health governance

Despite previous warnings, the world was caught unawares by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fragmentation and weakness of global governance, combined with information overload and the lack of an integrated multilateral approach, have limited the capacity for an equitable global response.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) should undertake this role, beyond the recent and progressive incorporation of different actors, which hinders decision-making, transparency and accountability.

 

Recommendations

New global health governance demands an independent, professional and participatory World Health Organisation that is able to foster a common and multisector response to the pandemic based on independent evaluation and putting equality and the right to health before other interests.

Sustainable Development Goals

We are at risk, enhanced by COVID-19, of not meeting the Targets established by the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, given that the crisis has only made existing health problems worse.

The impact on people with HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria translating into more deaths, and treatment for non-communicable diseases either partially or completely interrupted in no fewer than 60 countries.

 

Recommendations

The strengthening of health systems and increased equality are key strategies for fighting against poverty and promoting development. Having a strong public health system is crucial in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and others that could occur in the future.

Universal Health Coverage

The advances of Sustainable Development Goal 3, with regard to health and well-being, and to attain Universal Health Coverage, are insufficient.

Inequality in health continues to be the greatest global problem, with the most impoverished and vulnerable societies and people the ones with the worst health.

El 12,7% de la población mundial gastó más del 10% de su presupuesto familiar en atención médica.

12.7% of the world’s population also spent 10% of their family budget on medical care. If we carry on in this way, the World Health Organisation estimates that 5 billion people will not have access to health care by 2030.

 

Recommendations

To obtain Universal Health Coverage we must commit to strengthening public health systems and to providing Primary Health Care through an additional annual investment of 2 billion dollars in low-and medium-income countries. Such an investment that would save 60 million lives between now and 2030.

International Cooperation


Only five of the 29 Development Assistance Committee member countries fulfilled the goal of allocating 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) to Official Development Assistance.

They are Denmark, Luxemburg, Norway, the UK and Sweden.

The total Aid from member countries as a whole represents 0.30% of their GNI, a long way from that 0.7%

Furthermore, the percentage of this Aid assigned to health has decreased by 6.5% in relation to the previous year.

Spain remains in position 13 out of 29 in absolute figures and drops to 21 in terms of the percentage of its gross income.

Recommendations

There is a need to speed up attaining the 0.7% and increase the part allocated to health via a realistic process of partial increments. It would be advisable for the 24 Development Assistance Committee countries yet to reach it to make a political decision, just as the United Kingdom did in decreeing 0.7% of its GNI for Cooperation by law.

Spain’s total Official Development Assistance

In 2019, Spain’s Official Development Assistance, despite increasing to 177 million euros, represented 0.21% of the Gross National Income (GNI), a percentage which is still some distance from the 0.30% average of the Development Assistance Committee’s group of donors, the 0.47% average of the European Union’s donor countries and the 0.7% agreement reached 50 years ago within the UN.

Following a decade of cutbacks, this figure remains insufficient to reach the 0.7% commitment and that acquired by the current Spanish Government to allocate 0.5% of its GNI to Cooperation by the end of its term of office


Trend in Spanish Gross ODA and as percentage of GNI 2006-2019

Recommendations

Spanish Cooperation must be remodelled, ensuring enough funding through a law that makes 0.7% obligatory and equips the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) with resources, along with a strategy of participatory Cooperation.

Health in Spanish Cooperation

The importance of health in Spanish Cooperation continues to drop: the allocated 63.6 million euros represent 2.39% of the gross total of Official Development Assistance, far below the 12.91% of the average of the Development Assistance Committee’s group of donors and far from the 8% Spanish Cooperation allocated to the sector in 2010


Trend in Gross Health ODA, 2008-2019

Recommendations

There must be a priority, substantial and sustained increase in resources allocated to health, providing equal opportunities, and constituting a significant equalising factor for low-income and emerging countries, where access to basic health services is normally limited.

Humanitarian Action in Spanish Cooperation

Spanish Cooperation’s Humanitarian Aid remains at a bare minimum, despite the slight increase positioning it at 62 million euros, representing 2.35% of the ODA total and some distance from the 10% commitment.

In other words, it is not enough to alleviate humanitarian needs, with the COVID-19 pandemic worsening the fragile situation for countries affected by violence, conflicts and climatic emergencies.


Trend in Spanish Gross ODA devoted to HA, 2009-2019

 

Recommendations

Spanish Cooperation must establish a specific and credible schedule to reach the goal of allocating 10% of its Official Development Assistance in Humanitarian Action in 2022 and to ensure that the response to the COVID-19 crisis involves additional funds.