Micah AE, Cogswell IE, Cunningham B, et al. - In many low-income countries, an important source of health financing is development assistance. In this study, development assistance was put for health for COVID-19 in the context of broader trends in global health financing, and total health spending from 1995 to 2050 and development assistance for COVID-19 in 2020 were estimated.

• Domestic health spending and development assistance for health were estimated to determine total health-sector spending estimates for 204 countries and territories.

• The WHO Global Health Expenditure Database was assessed to retrieve estimates of domestic health spending.

• Project-level disbursement data from the major international development agencies' online databases and annual financial statements and reports for information on income sources were analyzed to generate estimates for development assistance for health.

• Global health spending in 2019 reached $8·8 trillion (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 8·7–8·8) or $1,132 (1,119–1,143) per person.

• As per expectations, there will be continuous growth in global health spending, but inequality remains in its distribution between countries.

• Development organizations are estimated to have markedly raised the amount of development assistance for health provided in 2020.

• There is a necessity for continuous efforts to enhance sufficient resources to lower the pandemic for the most vulnerable, and to help curtail the pandemic for all.