The report released recently has slammed the EU on its failures on the commitments to helping the poor to reach the MDGs on health, further calling on the commission to consider increasing its aid to the health sector.
"Review how assistance to the health sector is distributed to ensure its primarily directed to its policy priority of health systems support," said the European Court, further urging that a positive consideration should be made during the tenth European Development Fund (EDF) mid-term review to support commitments to the health MDGs.
According to the report the EC financial support to health is low, explaining that allocations to the health sector in Sub-Saharan Africa have not increased since 2000 as a proportion of total Official Development Assistance (ODA) despite the EC’s commitments.
The audit further points that the EC does not have sufficient health expertise to adequately implement its health policy also saying the general budget support is not sufficiently linked to improved access to health services, especially for the poor, marginalised and difficult to reach sections of developing country populations.
Amongst top in the list of recommendations to the EC, the report calls for utilisation of partners resources where the commission lacks expertise and also making more use of Sector Budget Support in the health sector and focusing the General Budget Support more on improving health services. "Make greater efforts to contribute to the development of well-defined health sector policies in beneficiary countries," the audit report recommended.
The objective of the report from the European Court of Auditors was to assess how effective the European Commission assistance had been in contributing to improving health services in sub-Saharan Africa in the context of the EC’s commitments to poverty reduction and the MDGs.
The report has however noted the disparity between the high priority of health in the EU’s development objectives and the low priority given in development finance.