Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems: what next?

The high-level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems was set up in 2008 and chaired by Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Robert Zoellick, President of The World Bank. Its aim was to identify innovative and additional sources of funding for health systems strengthening in the 49 lowest-income countries of the world. The taskforce delivered its final recommendations in September 2009 together with two detailed working group papers.1,2 Here we summarize the main outputs and recommendations of the taskforce according to three areas: (i) costing the financing gap; (ii) new and innovative sources of finance; and (iii) making development assistance for health work better (Box 1). We then examine their limitations and propose further actions for the international health community.