WP12: Who Are ‘Informal Health Providers’ and What Do They Do? Perspectives from Medical Anthropology

This paper explores gaps and limitations in the conceptualisation, methodology and policy implications of debates about informal health care providers by examining a cross section of empirical studies. Drawing on a tradition of critical medical anthropology, we argue that existing debates hinge on a particular understanding of what constitutes appropriate knowledge and on particular expectations of how economic actors in the medical marketplace will behave.

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WP10: Health Shock Vulnerabilities and Its Correlates Exploring the Linkages for In-patient Care Seekers in West Bengal

The objective of this working paper was to find out the correlates of health shock vulnerabilities for in-patient care seekers and understanding the process through which the impact of immediate determinants change after controlling for different basic and underlying factors in West Bengal, India.

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WP9 - Demand and Supply side barriers in Access to Childhood Immunization Services - A Case Study of Murshidabad, West Bengal

The objective of this paper is to elucidate the independent role of various demand side and supply side factors as barriers to access childhood immunization and how their impact change when both these sides are taken together, in the Mushidabad district or West Bengal, India.

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WP8 - Innovations to improve provider performance

This paper identifies innovations shown to affect the performance of providers in meeting the needs of the poor and likely to have a major impact on health-related markets in the future.

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WP7 - Provider performance and information and communication technologies

There has been much discussion of the role that recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play in improving health provider performance, though as yet there seems to be little reliable, independently verified evidence to support the claims of those who initially viewed the new ICTs as offering ―a revolution in global healthcare management‖ (Séror 2001, p. 1). In particular, limited systematic attention has been given to the application of ICTs by private providers in developing countries, with most of the international agencies concerned with these issues tending to focus on large-scale public sector innovations (e.g., Chetley 2006; WHO 2006).

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