Devex: The future of health financing: Investing in data
Annie Haakenstad, Ph.D. candidate in the global health and population department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Joseph Dieleman, assistant professor at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington

“…The future of health financing … requires investments in health financing data. These data are vital to effective, evidence-based policymaking. Spending indicators represent the realization of priorities across the health sector, but also advance our knowledge of the provision of health services, inequality, and other core characteristics of health systems. Information about financing gaps and the investment landscape more generally can help development assistance partners take timely action to avoid programmatic shortfalls or seize short-lived opportunities for impact. … Evidence-based health systems demand comparable, granular, and timely health financing data. New constraints on funding and novel challenges in a new era of global health make building sustainable health financing data systems vital. Now, more than ever, a health financing data revolution is sorely needed” (11/8).