Government investments in public health are vital to driving health progress and prosperity. We partner with civil society and governments to catalyze the political commitment needed to increase and effectively manage health budgets. Through a combination of strategic, locally-led advocacy, technical assistance and capacity strengthening, we help drive public investments that prioritize health and improves accountability. With deep experience in both budget advocacy and health tax policy advocacy, GHAI has successfully supported domestic resource mobilization across a range of issues—from epidemic preparedness to vaccines and other disease prevention and treatment.
GHAI’s Approach to Increasing Health Budgets
We use a variety of strategies to strengthen a country’s investments in health, especially in resource-constrained settings. Our proven approach focuses on building political will, strengthening the capacity of civil society and government stakeholders and providing technical assistance.
Domestic Resource Mobilization Advocacy
The Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) works with local partners to develop advocacy campaigns to build the political will needed to increase and sustain domestic resources for health and ensure health budgets are effectively utilized.
Budget advocacy cycle
GHAI developed a budget advocacy framework has been used by civil society organizations to build political support and accountability for investments in health. Across a range of issues, including epidemic preparedness, childhood immunization, hypertension prevention and treatment, school meals, maternal and reproductive health and child drowning prevention, GHAI has supported local partners to achieve increases in budget allocations and disbursements.
1
Campaign Planning
Conduct a political and legal landscape analysis and impact assessment to build the case for increased investments in epidemic preparedness, and plan the political strategy.
2
Campaign Implementation
Build civil society and academic sector coalitions, engage policymakers and generate media coverage and support for increased funding.
3
Budget Accountability
Track budget allocations and spending of increased resources, identify bottlenecks to spending, assess and build capacity to increase accountability and promote transparent disbursement and effective spending.
4
Budget Sustainability
Conduct program impact evaluation, assess budget needs for the next budget cycle, promote different sources of funding and build demand to sustain and increase the investment to improve health indicators in the medium and long-term.
Government Engagement and Institutional Reforms
GHAI works with ministries of finance and health, parliament and other government agencies to improve public financial management and advance legislative reforms to promote sustainable financing for health and ensure that funds are used efficiently.
1
Strategic Planning and Budget Analysis
We partner with governments to analyze funding gaps and develop and implement strategies to mobilize political support within the budget process.
2
Strategy Implementation
We leverage data and research to demonstrate financial effectiveness and return on investment.
3
Budget Accountability
We track budget allocations and spending of the increased resources, identifying bottlenecks to disbursement and spending, facilitating the establishment of joint government/civil society accountability mechanisms and strengthening capacity in public finance management.
4
Budget Sustainability
We support governments to institutionalize gains, assess budget needs for the next budget cycle, diversify funding sources, scale up successful models and build CRVS financing sustainability.
Civil Society Capacity Strengthening
Recognizing that effective advocacy requires technical know-how and strategic approaches, GHAI supports CSOs and local advocates through hands-on training programs, advocacy toolkits and interactive self-paced online training. GHAI provides step-by-step guidance on navigating government budgeting cycles, advocating for increased health budget allocations and ensuring budget accountability. These tools ensure that both CSOs and government officials have the skills to implement and sustain effective health financing reforms. GHAI offers both customized budget advocacy training and capacity strengthening as well as online courses and an Accelerator program.
Advocacy Accelerator
Our Advocacy Accelerator is a comprehensive nine month program that strengthens the capacity of twelve civil society organizations (CSOs) to advocate for domestic budget allocations for noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention, injury prevention and health security. The Accelerator combines hands-on learning, peer exchange and mentorship.
HATCH is a hub for peer-to-peer learning for public health advocates, featuring a wealth of courses and resources to help users develop their advocacy competencies, including budget advocacy and accountability.
Health Taxes
Advocacy for Health Taxes: Improving Health, Raising Revenues
GHAI and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has deep expertise in advocating for the design, adoption and implementation of health taxes—levies on products that harm health and contribute to disease. When well-designed and evidence based, taxes on tobacco, sweetened beverages and other unhealthy products are one of the most high-impact policy measures that a country can implement to improve health and save lives. Not only do health taxes reduce the consumption of products that cause death and disease, they also save governments money in healthcare costs and generate revenue that can be earmarked for health.
Together with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, GHAI has successfully worked with partners in more than 20 countries globally on advocacy campaigns to help design, implement or increase excise taxes on tobacco, sweetened beverages and ultra processed foods. It also provides technical assistance to local civil society and governments defending health tax policies from legal challenges by health-harming industries.
GHAI supports the development of policy frameworks that link the revenue from these health taxes directly to critical health programs or dedicated budget line items, or a portion of these tax revenues specifically to health financing. For instance, the additional funds from higher taxes on tobacco have been channeled into expanding immunization programs or bolstering chronic disease management. This approach helps create a predictable, sustained revenue stream that supplements limited domestic budgets.
We support government partners to prioritize strategic investments towards building strong civil registration and vital statistics systems.
We work with advocates and governments to secure funding to sustain national drowning prevention programs.
We support advocacy campaigns to pass or increase taxes on sugary drinks and ultra-processed products.
We work with civil society organizations (CSOs) to advocate with governments to build political will for equitable and sustainable financing for immunization and primary healthcare.
We advocate for increased resources for hypertension medication and primary healthcare systems to address this critical public health crisis.
We build support for government investments in epidemic preparedness. Our Budget Advocacy Guide is a training resource to support advocacy for increased and sustained domestic investments in epidemic preparedness and response. For more information, visit www.budgetadvocacy.org
In an important victory for public health in Nigeria, Kano State more than doubled its budget for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) between fiscal years 2024/2025 and 2025/2026. This substantial budgetary expansion demonstrates the power of sustained, data-driven advocacy and strategic partnerships in securing domestic health funding for chronic disease prevention and management.
An analysis conducted by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) determined that Uganda’s ability to respond to epidemics was dependent on donor grants – an unsustainable situation.
With budget advocacy support from the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI), the Government of the Maldives has made a historic investment in the human and technical resources that support its national civil registration, vital statistics and identity management (CRVSID) systems.
Kano State improved its ability to prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks by establishing a budget line for epidemic preparedness and response (EPR) after civil society organizations (CSOs) made the case for increased and sustained funding.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, from January 2020 through June 2021, health and wellness centers in Punjab, India, trained over 2,600 health workers and provided more than 5.2 million consultations with patients, including 2.5 million consultations on diabetes and hypertension.
In Vietnam, a groundbreaking partnership between the national government and international partners is on track to reduce the national drowning burden by 20%. By securing dedicated funding streams and pursuing innovative partnerships, two high-burden provinces have provided a blueprint for sustaining their drowning prevention programs.
Locally-led advocacy campaigns supported by the Global Health Advocacy Incubator (GHAI) have contributed to the adoption and strengthening of sweetened beverage (SB) taxes in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and South Asia. The lessons learned from these campaigns are being applied by advocates around the world to counter the threat caused by SBs in their countries and generate new government revenues.
