WHO has been tracking the sources and uses of financial resources in the health sector for over 20 years, using Health Accounts and other mechanisms. As countries strive towards universal health coverage (UHC), aligning the classification of revenues and expenditures to the health-financing policy framework of revenue-raising, pooling and purchasing become increasingly essential.  

Continuously improving the global health expenditure data quality is critical to understanding progress in health systems and the underlying trends and driving forces. WHO has invested in supporting countries to track their health expenditures and update the global health expenditure database (GHED) annually for two decades. The annual database update is the collaborative data collection and validation efforts with the Member States and other partner agencies.

To inform policymakers and stakeholders, WHO also publishes a Global Health Expenditure Report annually to accompany the GHED update and provides analytical derivatives, including short videos, data visualizations and technical notes.