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Table 1 Types of financial mechanisms for co-financing

From: Financing intersectoral action for health: a systematic review of co-financing models

Financial mechanism

Definition

Revenue collection

 1. Pooled funds

At least two budget holders make contributions to a single pool for spending on pre-agreed services or interventions. This can be done at various levels (national, regional, local) and accessed in different ways (i.e. grants or regular budgetary system).

 2. Aligned budgets

Budget holders align resources, identify own contributions towards pre-specified common objectives. Joint monitoring of spending and performance, but management remains separate.

 3. Structural integration

Full integration of cross-sector responsibilities, finances and resources under single management or a single organisation.

Purchasing

 1. Joint or lead commissioning

Separate budget holders jointly identify a need and agree on a set of objectives, then commission services and track outcomes. The commissioning itself can be done through a joint authority board or through one agency taking commissioning responsibility.

 2. Cross-charging

The mechanism whereby a cross-sector financial penalty is incurred for the non-achievement of a pre-specified target. Cross-charging compensates sectors who incur an external cost from another sector’s poor performance.

 3. Transfer payments

Sectoral budget holders make service revenue or capital contributions to bodies in other sectors to support additional services or interventions in this other sector.

  1. Adapted from Mason et al. (2015) [20]