Supporting implementation of the Lusaka Agenda through technical health financing analytics, guidance, and research

Donor countries are slashing foreign health aid, and this project aims to help low-income countries keep their health systems running by figuring out how to better blend shrinking external funds with their own domestic budgets. The problem is urgent. A proposed World Health Assembly resolution calls for immediate guidance on aligning donor money with national health priorities, but the recent, dramatic cuts to official development assistance have made that need critical. Countries now face a dire gap between what they need to spend on healthcare and what they can afford. The project addresses a knowledge gap: there is no clear, evidence-based playbook for how to merge external and domestic financing flows efficiently when both are under strain. If successful, this work will produce practical analytics, guidance, and a structured dialogue to help governments and funders make smarter, faster decisions about where limited money goes. The impact is on the quiet machinery of public health finance—the budget lines, procurement systems, and payment flows that determine whether clinics stay open and medicines remain in stock. Over the longer term, the research aims to reshape the global health financing architecture itself, making it more resilient and driven by country-level realities rather than donor whims.