IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/6213.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Demand-side financing for sexual and reproductive health services in low and middle-income countries : a review of the evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Witter, Sophie
  • Somanathan, Aparnaa

Abstract

Demand-side financing approaches have been introduced in a number of low and middle-income countries, with a particular emphasis on sexual and reproductive health. This paper aims to bring together the global evidence on demand-side financing mechanisms, their impact on the delivery of sexual and reproductive health services, and the conditions under which they have been effective. The paper begins with a discussion of modalities for demand-side financing. It then examines 13 existing schemes, including cash incentives, vouchers, and longer term social protection policies. Based on the available literature, it collates evidence of their impact on utilization of services, access for the poor, financial protection, quality of care, and health outcomes. Evidence on costs and cost-effectiveness are examined, along with analysis of funding and sustainability of policies. Finally, the paper discusses the preconditions for effectiveness of demand-side financing schemes and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. It also highlights the extent to which results for sexual and reproductive health services are likely to be generalizable to other types of health care. It is clear that some of these policies can produce impressive results, if the preconditions for effectiveness outlined are met. However, relatively few demand-side financing schemes have benefited from robust evaluation. Investigation of the impact on financial protection, equity, and health outcomes has been limited. Most importantly, cost effectiveness and the relative cost effectiveness of demand-side financing in relation to other strategies for achieving similar goals have not been assessed.

Suggested Citation

  • Witter, Sophie & Somanathan, Aparnaa, 2012. "Demand-side financing for sexual and reproductive health services in low and middle-income countries : a review of the evidence," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6213, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2012/10/02/000158349_20121002105400/Rendered/PDF/wps6213.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Powell-Jackson, Timothy & Hanson, Kara, 2012. "Financial incentives for maternal health: Impact of a national programme in Nepal," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 271-284.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mili Mehrotra & Karthik V. Natarajan, 2020. "Value of Combining Patient and Provider Incentives in Humanitarian Health Care Service Programs," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(3), pages 571-594, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yannick Markhof & Isabela Franciscon & Nicolò Bird & Pedro Arruda, 2021. "Social assistance programmes in South Asia: an evaluation of socio-economic impacts," Research Report 62, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    2. Tulsi Ram Bhandari & V Raman Kutty & P Sankara Sarma & Ganesh Dangal, 2017. "Safe delivery care practices in western Nepal: Does women’s autonomy influence the utilization of skilled care at birth?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(8), pages 1-10, August.
    3. Benjamin M Hunter & Sean Harrison & Anayda Portela & Debra Bick, 2017. "The effects of cash transfers and vouchers on the use and quality of maternity care services: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-37, March.
    4. Tulasi Malini Maharatha & Sumirtha Gandhi & Umakant Dash, 2021. "Has the Demand and Supply-side Components of Janani Suraksha Yojana Augmented the Uptake of Maternal Health Care Services among Poor Women in India ? : An Application of Hybrid Matching Technique," BASE University Working Papers 08/2021, BASE University, Bengaluru, India.
    5. von Haaren, Paula & Klonner, Stefan, 2020. "Maternal cash for better child health? The impacts of India’s IGMSY/PMMVY maternity benefit scheme," Working Papers 0689, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    6. Fredrick Manang & Chikako Yamauchi, 2015. "The impact of access to health facilities on maternal care use and health status: Evidence from longitudinal data from rural Uganda," GRIPS Discussion Papers 15-19, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    7. Pham Bao Duong & Pham Tien Thanh & Tihomir Ancev, 2021. "Impacts of off‐farm employment on welfare, food security and poverty: Evidence from rural Vietnam," International Journal of Social Welfare, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 84-96, January.
    8. Gerald Manthalu, 2019. "User fee exemption and maternal health care utilisation at mission health facilities in Malawi: An application of disequilibrium theory of demand and supply," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 461-474, April.
    9. Mohamad A. Khaled & Paul Makdissi & Rami V. Tabri & Myra Yazbeck, 2018. "A framework for testing the equality between the health concentration curve and the 45‐degree line," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(5), pages 887-896, May.
    10. Paula von Haaren & Stefan Klonner, 2021. "Lessons learned? Intended and unintended effects of India's second‐generation maternal cash transfer scheme," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(10), pages 2468-2486, September.
    11. Alan de Brauw & Amber Peterman, 2020. "Can conditional cash transfers improve maternal health care? Evidence from El Salvador's Comunidades Solidarias Rurales program," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 700-715, June.
    12. Joshi, Shareen & Sivaram, Anusuya, 2014. "Does it Pay to Deliver? An Evaluation of India’s Safe Motherhood Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 434-447.
    13. Muhammad Badiuzzaman & Syed Mansoob Murshed, 2016. "Impact of post-conflict development interventions on maternal healthcare utilization," WIDER Working Paper Series 082, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    14. Coffey, Diane, 2014. "Costs and consequences of a cash transfer for hospital births in a rural district of Uttar Pradesh, India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 89-96.
    15. Duong, Pham Bao & Thanh, Pham Tien, 2019. "Adoption and effects of modern rice varieties in Vietnam: Micro-econometric analysis of household surveys," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 282-292.
    16. Grépin, Karen A. & Habyarimana, James & Jack, William, 2019. "Cash on delivery: Results of a randomized experiment to promote maternal health care in Kenya," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 15-30.
    17. Díaz, Juan José & Saldarriaga, Víctor, 2017. "Promoting prenatal health care in poor rural areas through conditional cash transfers: evidence from JUNTOS in Peru," Avances de Investigación 0025, Grupo de Análisis para el Desarrollo (GRADE).
    18. Rahman, Mohammad Mahbubur & Pallikadavath, Saseendran, 2018. "How much do conditional cash transfers increase the utilization of maternal and child health care services? New evidence from Janani Suraksha Yojana in India," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 164-183.
    19. Elizabeth Tilley & Isabel Günther, 2016. "The Impact of Conditional Cash Transfer on Toilet Use in eThekwini, South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-16, October.
    20. Gopalan, Saji S. & Mutasa, Ronald & Friedman, Jed & Das, Ashis, 2014. "Health sector demand-side financial incentives in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review on demand- and supply-side effects," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 72-83.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Population Policies; Health Systems Development&Reform; Adolescent Health; Housing&Human Habitats;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.