WHO has well-developed guidance for the development of health financing policy, which supports progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) and overall health system goals. Most recently, a series of health financing guiding principles have been proposed, based around the different functions of health financing policy (Kutzin et al., 2017; McIntyre and Kutzin, 2016). The key messages in these guidance documents centre heavily on the importance of public finances, and the role of government in using those finances in the best way to strengthen their health system and maximise progress towards UHC.