Table 1.
Summary of key analytical choices
| Countdown | Muskoka | OECD RMNCH policy marker | IHME | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What time period do the estimates analysed in this Article cover? | 2003–13 | 2002–15 (presented in this Article); 2006–14 (PMNCH reports) | 2013–15 (donor reporting requested); 2010–15 (US reporting) | 1990–2016 (global and donor-specific); 1990–2014 (recipient-specific) |
| Which aid data sources are used? | OECD's Creditor Reporting System database; missing data from Gavi, the vaccine alliance for 2003–06, replaced with data obtained directly from Gavi | OECD's Creditor Reporting System database; for donor-specific estimates, Creditor Reporting System supplemented with additional OECD data tables on core contributions to multilaterals | OECD's Creditor Reporting System database | For 23 donor countries and the EU, OECD Creditor Reporting System and Development Assistance Committee databases were combined; for other donors, institutions' financial reports, audited financial statements, direct correspondence, and online databases; US tax filings; the Foundation Center's grants database; and the annual report on charities registered with the US Agency for International Development were used46 |
| Which flow types are included? | Official development assistance and private grants | Official development assistance | Official development assistance (required to be coded) plus other official flows (optional to be coded) | Official development assistance, private grants, and donor administration costs |
| Which donors' aid is included? | Data from all 84 donors reporting to Creditor Reporting System evaluated; 51 donors (31 countries and 19 multilateral institutions and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) considered to have provided aid for RMNCH based on Countdown criteria | Data from all 84 donors reporting to Creditor Reporting System evaluated; 63 donors (38 countries and 25 multilateral institutions) considered to have provided aid for RMNCH based on Muskoka criteria | All 84 donors reporting to Creditor Reporting System asked to code data on their official development assistance (if any) and other official flows (if any) for 2013 onwards; 33 donors (29 countries plus four multilateral institutions) coded any data with at least one non-zero value based on RMNCH policy marker criteria | Data from 36 of the 84 donors reporting to Creditor Reporting System evaluated using either Creditor Reporting System or other data sources; 34 of these 84 donors (24 countries plus nine multilateral institutions and the Gates Foundation) considered to have provided aid for RMNCH based on IHME criteria; additionally, IHME evaluated data from Pan American Health Organisation, >1000 foundations, and >500 non-governmental organisations based in the USA, and from >100 international non-governmental organisations registered in the USA; numbers of these considered to have provided aid for RMNCH based on IHME criteria is unclear |
| How are RMNCH activities defined? (see appendix for details) | Broadly | Broadly | Broadly | Narrowly |
| How is aid for RMNCH distinguished from other aid? | Analysts code each record individually according to one of 27 codes in an activity-based RMNCH framework; depending on the code assigned, a combination of assumptions or year-specific and recipient country-specific financing, and health and demographic data define the proportion of the record's value (0–100%) categorised as supporting RMNCH | Analysts categorise a proportion (0–100%) of the value of each record as supporting RMNCH based on the record's Creditor Reporting System purpose code; the proportion associated with each purpose code reflects a combination of assumptions and data on financing, health, and demography in 2009 averaged across 49 low-income countries | Donors code each record to indicate whether approximately 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% of the funding supports RMNCH; analysts can use these codes to generate estimates | Analysts combine existing categories (eg, Creditor Reporting System purpose codes and multilateral institutions' internal classification systems) with key term searches of descriptive text fields to classify funding as focused on either MNCH or other health focus areas (HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, other infectious diseases, health systems, non-communicable diseases, and other); where key terms indicate more than one health focus area for a record, its value is divided across focus areas in proportion to the number of key terms identified for each focus area |
| Are donor countries credited for their relevant contributions to multilateral institutions' core budgets? | Some; donor countries credited for relevant contributions to multilaterals for which the recipient and purpose are specified, but not for core contributions to multilaterals' general budgets | Mostly, donor countries credited for relevant earmarked contributions and for relevant core contributions to ten multilaterals; core contributions to the EU and other multilaterals not credited | As for Countdown | Yes; all aid flows traced back to a government, corporate, or private source |
| How is aid to unspecified, global, and regional recipients treated? | Included in estimates for each recipient country and the 75 priority countries | As for Countdown | Excluded from estimates for each recipient country and the 75 priority countries | Regional funding included, and both unspecified and global funding excluded from estimates for each recipient country and the 75 priority countries |
| How are currency values adjusted for inflation and exchange rates? | Used OECD methods: first adjusted for inflation in each donor country, then converted to $US using average exchange rates in a single year (2015 for our analysis) | As for Countdown | As for Countdown and Muskoka | First converted each year's aid to $US using average annual exchange rates, then applied US gross domestic product deflators, which account for inflation in the USA |
| How are estimates adjusted for under-reporting and reporting lags? | Not adjusted | Not adjusted; reporting lags addressed in text of PMNCH reports by providing indication of more recent trends in aid based on interviews with key donors | Not adjusted | For earlier years, used commitments to estimate disbursements and inflated detailed Creditor Reporting System data to match aggregate Development Assistance Committee data; for the decade to 2014, minor adjustments to disbursements to match reported commitments; for the most recent 2 years, generated estimated disbursements using regression models |
OECD=Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. RMNCH=reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health. IHME=Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. PMNCH=Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health. MNCH=maternal, newborn, and child health. EU=European Union.