Many of the lessons for other stakeholders focus on the need to build better connections between the health sector and overall budgetary processes in order to make sure health interests are a more effective part of the equation in making fiscal choices.
National priority-setting processes need to be sharpened. In particular, the capacity of ministries of health to undertake budgetary planning should be strengthened, with external technical support, to enable them to produce concrete operational plans that will make a good case for additional budgetary resources. The capacity of ministries of finance to analyze alternative options should be increased. The role of parliaments in the priority-setting process also needs to be enhanced. Development partners should avoid adding to the fragmentation of budgetary processes and the national dialogue over policy priorities. They should improve the predictability of their aid and make longer-term commitments in order to promote more effective planning and implementation of health spending.
Bilateral donors, the World Bank, and other multilateral institutions should be more proactive in providing timely sector-specific analysis as inputs to macro assessments of scaling up. In the health sector, they should be more pro-active in giving empirically-based advice on how to translate increased resources into more effective interventions. This should include more concrete advice on how to reform wage structures and incentive systems for countries' health sectors.
Civil society organizations involved in budgetary and health advocacy issues should give greater attention to monitoring and influencing the setting and implementation of annual budgets