ABSTRACT
Government Expenditure One of the major obstacles to an effective health care system in Africa is the low
governmental budgetary allocation to health (hardly exceeding 6% of the overall public budget). Per-capita expenditure for health care ranges from 3-300 US dollars (US$) per year. Total health expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in African countries is shown in Table 1. There is a wide variation in the scale of health care spending between African countries. This variation has impor tant practical implications: African countries that spend more on health care tend to do better in terms of health services and outcomes than those who spend less.6
