Table 1.

Health equity goals, resource allocation and sufficiency

Health equity goal	Resource allocation examples	Reason for being insufficient
1. no equity goal (private insurance healthcare systems)	pre independence Namibia (private health insurance and limited state provision)	poor access by unemployed, urban, poor
2. equal provision per person	partial decentralisation (devolution of recurrent funding in Namibia)	populations with higher health needs are undersupplied
3. equal access for equal met need	full decentralisation (devolution of recurrent and capital funding in Namibia)	less mobile, less educated populations use services less
4. equal utilisation for equal need	targeted health promotion (CHW programme in Namibia)	determinants of poor health of socio-economically deprived groups not addressed
5. equality of health status	UK NHS funding allocation based on inequalities of health status	none: GHEI/WHO sufficiency criteria achieved