Innovative Financing in Early Recovery: The Liberia Health Sector Pool Fund - Working Paper 288

In post-conflict Liberia, the National Health Plan set out a process for transitioning from emergency to sustainability under government leadership.

The Liberia Health Sector Pool Fund, which consists of DfID, Irish Aid, UNICEF, and UNHCR, was established to fund this plan and mitigate this transition by increasing institutional capacity, reducing the transaction costs associated with managing multiple donor projects, and fostering the leadership of the Liberian Health Ministry by allocating funds to national priorities.

In this paper, Jacob Hughes, Amanda Glassman, and Walter Gwenigale discuss the design of the health pool fund mechanism, assess its functioning, compare the pooled fund to other aid mechanisms used in Liberia, and look into the enabling conditions, opportunities, and challenges of the pool fund.