Mapping of reproductive health financing: methodological challenges

Low level of funding for reproductive health (RH) is a cause for concern, given that RH service utilization in the vast majority of the developing world is well below the desired level. Though there is an urgent need to track the domestic and international financial resource flows for RH, the instruments through which financial resources are tracked in developing countries are limited. In this paper we examined the methodological and conceptual challenges of monitoring financial resources for RH services at international and national level. At the international level, there are a number of estimates that highlights the need for financial resources for RH programmes but the estimates vary significantly. At the national level, Reproductive Health Accounts (RHA) in the framework of National Health Accounts (NHA) is considered to be the ideal source to track domestic financial flows for RH activities. However, the weak link between data production by the RHA and its application by the stakeholders as well as lack of political will impedes the institutionalization of RHA at the country level.