Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi

Since 2013, the government of Malawi has been pursuing a number of health reforms, which include plans to increase domestic financing for health through “innovative financing.” As part of these reforms, Malawi has sought to raise additional tax revenue through existing and new sources with a view to...

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Main Authors:	Chansa, Collins, Mwase, Takondwa, Matsebula, Thulani Clement, Kandoole, Priscilla, Revill, Paul, Makumba, John Bosco, Lindenow, Magnus
Format:	Journal Article
Published:	Taylor and Francis 2019
Subjects:	RESOURCE MOBILIZATION TAXATION EARMARKS FISCAL SPACE HEALTH FINANCE FINANCIAL INNOVATION
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31143

id	okr-10986-31143
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-311432021-05-25T10:54:36Z Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi Chansa, Collins Mwase, Takondwa Matsebula, Thulani Clement Kandoole, Priscilla Revill, Paul Makumba, John Bosco Lindenow, Magnus RESOURCE MOBILIZATION TAXATION EARMARKS FISCAL SPACE HEALTH FINANCE FINANCIAL INNOVATION Since 2013, the government of Malawi has been pursuing a number of health reforms, which include plans to increase domestic financing for health through “innovative financing.” As part of these reforms, Malawi has sought to raise additional tax revenue through existing and new sources with a view to earmarking the revenue generated to the health sector. In this article, a systematic approach to assessing feasibility and quantifying the amount of revenue that could be generated from potential sources is devised and applied. Specifically, the study applies the Delphi forecasting method to generate a qualitative assessment of the potential for raising additional tax revenues from existing and new sources, and the gross domestic product (GDP)-based effective tax rate forecasting method to quantify the amount of tax revenue that would be generated. The results show that an annual average of 0.30 USD, 0.46 USD, and 0.63 USD per capita could be generated from taxes on fuel and motor vehicle insurance over the period 2016/2017–2021/2022 under the low, medium, and high scenarios, respectively. However, the proposed tax reform has not been officially adopted despite wide consultations and generation of empirical evidence on the revenue potential. The study concludes is that revenue generation potential of innovative financing for health mechanisms in Malawi is limited, and calls for efforts to expand fiscal space for health to focus on efficiency-enhancing measures, including strengthening of governance and public financial management. 2019-01-11T17:20:56Z 2019-01-11T17:20:56Z 2018-10-29 Journal Article Health Systems & Reform 2328-8604 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31143 CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 World Bank Taylor and Francis Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa Malawi
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
topic	RESOURCE MOBILIZATION TAXATION EARMARKS FISCAL SPACE HEALTH FINANCE FINANCIAL INNOVATION
spellingShingle	RESOURCE MOBILIZATION TAXATION EARMARKS FISCAL SPACE HEALTH FINANCE FINANCIAL INNOVATION Chansa, Collins Mwase, Takondwa Matsebula, Thulani Clement Kandoole, Priscilla Revill, Paul Makumba, John Bosco Lindenow, Magnus Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi
geographic_facet	Africa Malawi
description	Since 2013, the government of Malawi has been pursuing a number of health reforms, which include plans to increase domestic financing for health through “innovative financing.” As part of these reforms, Malawi has sought to raise additional tax revenue through existing and new sources with a view to earmarking the revenue generated to the health sector. In this article, a systematic approach to assessing feasibility and quantifying the amount of revenue that could be generated from potential sources is devised and applied. Specifically, the study applies the Delphi forecasting method to generate a qualitative assessment of the potential for raising additional tax revenues from existing and new sources, and the gross domestic product (GDP)-based effective tax rate forecasting method to quantify the amount of tax revenue that would be generated. The results show that an annual average of 0.30 USD, 0.46 USD, and 0.63 USD per capita could be generated from taxes on fuel and motor vehicle insurance over the period 2016/2017–2021/2022 under the low, medium, and high scenarios, respectively. However, the proposed tax reform has not been officially adopted despite wide consultations and generation of empirical evidence on the revenue potential. The study concludes is that revenue generation potential of innovative financing for health mechanisms in Malawi is limited, and calls for efforts to expand fiscal space for health to focus on efficiency-enhancing measures, including strengthening of governance and public financial management.
format	Journal Article
author	Chansa, Collins Mwase, Takondwa Matsebula, Thulani Clement Kandoole, Priscilla Revill, Paul Makumba, John Bosco Lindenow, Magnus
author_facet	Chansa, Collins Mwase, Takondwa Matsebula, Thulani Clement Kandoole, Priscilla Revill, Paul Makumba, John Bosco Lindenow, Magnus
author_sort	Chansa, Collins
title	Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi
title_short	Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi
title_full	Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi
title_fullStr	Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi
title_full_unstemmed	Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi
title_sort	fresh money for health? the (false?) promise of 'innovative financing' for health in malawi
publisher	Taylor and Francis
publishDate	2019
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31143
_version_	1764473638509084672

Fresh Money for Health? The (False?) Promise of 'Innovative Financing' for Health in Malawi

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