Abstract:

In the Philippines, the crisis prompted the national government to invoke “an unmanageable public sector deficit”—a provision under the Local Government Code of 1991 that allows a 10 percent cut in the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) distributed to lower levels of government. 2 Because most local governments depended heavily on the IRA, the reduction further reduced local health spending, especially among provinces and municipalities, which had absorbed the bulk of devolved health functions.

Uneven regional growth aggravated the situation. In the Philippines, provinces in the Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao continued to lag behind other provinces, especially those in Metrpolitan Manila and surrounding provinces. In Vietnam, the cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh were developing faster than other areas, and similar unevenness existed in Indonesia. Utilization rates and other indicators of health access therefore varied widely across regions in all three countries.

Info

Source Institution	World Bank
Source URL	http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEAPDECEN/Resources/Chapter-8.pdf
Page Count	24
Place of Publication	Pasig City
Original Publication Date
Tags	Decentralization, Decentralize, Health, Manual