Ebook: Health expenditures, services, and outcomes in Africa: basic data and cross-national comparisons, 1990-1996, Volume 434

In the past 30 years, African countries have made remarkable improvements in health conditions and status. However, they still suffer from some of the worst health conditions in the world. This study sets out to make available national-level information on health expenditures, health service outputs, and health outcomes in a way that could assist health planning and policy development in Africa. It outlines broad patterns of health spending, service delivery, mortality, fertility and malnutrition in Africa in the early to mid 1990s. By also exploring gaps in information available and potential uses of health information, the paper intends to stimulate discussion on how better to monitor progress and use information for better health outcomes within and among different African countries. The data covered in the study include major macroeconomic indicators, such as real GDP, rate of GDP growth, inflation rate, and per capita official development assistance. Key social indicators are presented, including the level of education, and access to safe water and sanitation. The detailed data contained in the annex tables from which the analytic results are derived invite readers to make additional analyses of their own.