Middle-income countries graduating from health aid: Transforming daunting challenges into smooth transitions

Abstract

In the sustainable development goals (SDGs) era, the global health landscape is undergoing a rapid and profound set of transitions that threaten to stall or even derail progress in health improvement. These shifts are primarily affecting middle-income countries (MICs), where over 70% of the world’s poor now live [1]. Sustaining global health progress will depend on how domestic and international health policymakers and actors navigate 4 transitions facing MICs: shifts in diseases, demography, development assistance for health, and domestic health financing, or the “4Ds” of global health transition.