An unruly mélange? Coordinating external resources to the health sector: A review

Although there has been considerable experience with coordination strategies, most writing has considered external assistance in general, rather than the health sector in particular. The literature is striking in its bias towards the needs and perspectives of the donor community. There has been little analysis of the manner in which recipient ministries of health manage donors and the influx of resources. This review begins to fill this gap. Its focus is country-level, where most direct gains from coordination are to be reaped. The paper begins with an enumeration of the many and diverse trends which have raised the salience of aid coordination. A definition of coordination, a term used ambiguously in the existing literature, is then developed and the principles of aid coordination outlined. Finally, attention is directed to the initiatives of recipients and donors to improve the coordination of health sector aid.