The role of health foreign assistance in explaining health outcomes remains an unending debate.
The study assessed the relationship between foreign health aid and three selected health
indicators of interest: infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate and life expectancy, with control
variables such as government expenditure on health and general medical clinics and public health
services in Namibia. The data used was from 1990 to 2013 although there was some missing data.
It was found that all health indicators improve with an increase in foreign health aid except that it is
more impactful (statistically significant) in the case of infant mortality rate. The regression analysis
shows that a one percent increase in heath aid will result in a 0.03 decrease in infant mortality rate
but this is statistically insignificant. A one percent increase in health aid will result in a 0.01 decline
in under-five mortality. A one percent increase in health aid will result in 0.53 increase in life
expectancy. The Granger causality test revealed a uni-causal relationship among most variables.
An increase in government expenditure to health is accompanied by a decline in all indicators.
Overall, based on correlation coefficients, aid is linearly related to health outcomes in Namibia. The
study gives a tentative conclusion that foreign health aid slightly improves health outcomes in
Namibia