Regulatory challenges associated with the rapid spread of health markets

Dr Barun Kanjilal of IIHMR gives an overview of the regulatory challenges associated with the rapid spread of health markets in India to the Health System Reform in Asia conference held in Hong Kong in early December 2011. He notes in particular the important role that informal providers have played in delivering health services in the wake of government reforms.

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Making informal health providers work better for the poor: Lessons from Nigeria and Bangladesh

Dr Gerry Bloom from the Institute of Development studies presents to the M4P (Markets for the Poor) Conference in Brighton, UK, on 8 November 2011.

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Making informal health providers work better for the poor: Lessons from Nigeria and Bangladesh

Dr Gerry Bloom from the Institute of Development studies presents to the M4P (Markets for the Poor) Conference in Brighton, UK, on 8 November 2011.

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Exploring new health markets: experiences from informal providers of transport for maternal health services in Eastern Uganda

Although a number of intermediate transport initiatives have been used in some developing countries, available evidence reveals a dearth of local knowledge on the effect of these rural informal transport mechanisms on access to maternal health care services, the cost of implementing such schemes and their scalability. This paper, attempts to provide insights into the functioning of the informal transport markets in facilitating access to maternal health care. It also demonstrates the role that higher institutions of learning can play in designing projects that can increase the utilization of maternal health services.

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Comparing private sector family planning services to government and NGO services in Ethiopia and Pakistan: how do social franchises compare across quality, equity and cost?

Policy makers in developing countries need to assess how public health programmes function across both public and private sectors. We propose an evaluation framework to assist in simultaneously tracking performance on efficiency, quality and access by the poor in family planning services. We apply this framework to field data from family planning programmes in Ethiopia and Pakistan, comparing independent private sector providers; social franchises of private providers; non-government organization (NGO) providers; and government providers on these three factors.

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