ODA Spending 


How much ODA does Italy allocate to global health?


Italy prioritizes health and provides staunch support to multilateral health organizations. In 2021, Italy contributed US$1 billion ODA to global health, or 16% of its ODA, above the OECD DAC average. Italy was the 7th-largest OECD DAC donor to global health in 2021 in absolute terms.



How is Italian global health ODA changing?


As with the rest of its ODA, Italy delivers most of its health ODA multilaterally and is a strong supporter of health multilaterals. Italy hosted the first replenishment of the Global Fund in Rome in 2005 and has steadily increased its contributions since.


 


How does Italy allocate global health ODA?


Bilateral Spending 


Italy spent 35% of total health ODA bilaterally in 2021. It included 24% or US$246 million in the form of earmarked funding to multilaterals, which is counted as bilateral ODA.


Most of bilateral health ODA was used for COVID-19 control (69% or US$253 million), followed by medical services (7%), health policy and administrative management (6%), and basic health infrastructure (5%).



Multilateral Spending and Commitments


Italy spent US$676 million or 65% of total health ODA multilaterally in 2021, as core contributions to multilateral organizations.


Top multilateral recipients of Italy's health ODA were GAVI (44%), EUI (13%), and the Global Fund (6%).



Funding & Policy Outlook  


What is the current government's outlook on global health ODA?


Health was reaffirmed as a strategic priority in the ‘Programming Guidelines and Directions for Italian Development Cooperation 2021-2023,’ with a focus on HSS, MNCH, non-communicable chronic diseases, communicable diseases, and mental health.


In 2021, Italy organized the Global Health Summit with the EU, signaling an increased focus on global health as a development priority. Italy also took on a leadership role in COVAX.

Under Italian leadership, G20 countries pledged to redistribute US$100 billion of the US$650 billion in SDRs returned in 2021 to low-income countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Italy and other G20 countries announced that they would channel 20% of their SDR allocation to vulnerable countries.


Key Bodies 

Global health R&D is also important to addressing many of the global health challenges that disproportionately affect the world’s most disadvantaged people. For more information on how donor countries are supporting global health R&D across three main areas — 1) EIDs; 2) PRNDs; and 3) SRH — read the excellent G-Finder reports and explore the interactive data portal created by Policy Cures Research. Not all funding mentioned in these analyses qualifies as ODA.

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Lydia Sung

Lydia Sung

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Lydia Sung

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