This paper summarizes empirical findings from recent World Bank financed analysis on the use of health services by the poor in India (Mahal et al 2000) and some additional analysis conducted with the same data. Three factors motivate the choice of approach taken here and in the background paper....

The richness of the research papers in this volume makes it difficult to quickly capture the main themes and implications of their research. But three repeated themes can be highlighted: equality of public spending, the role of the private sector, and the role of consumers. On the theme of...

Health services can make an important contribution to improved health conditions among disadvantaged groups. Yet as the contents of this volume make clear, the health services supported by governments, and by agencies like ours too often fail to reach these people who need them most. This is not...

In the past thirty years, Sub-Saharan African countries have made remarkable improvements in health conditions and status. However, they still suffer from some of the worst health problems in the world, and AIDS is making conditions much worse than they will be otherwise. This study, health...

Decision makers and the public are in need of information to guide their decisions about how to strengthen health services. This book pulls together available evidence concerning strategies to improve health services delivery in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), using current methods to...

The overwhelming evidence of inequalities in health outcomes and in the use of health services calculated and disseminated by the World Bank and other development agencies in the last 10 years has energized global efforts to address the needs of the poor and socially vulnerable. These efforts...

While women in developing countries continue to die in large numbers in child birth, population and reproductive health specialists and advocates around the world are struggling to keep the policy agenda focused on the rights and needs of poor women. The 1994 Cairo Conference and Program of...

Structural transformation of China's economy in the 1980s and its impact on the health sector created a critical need for skills and research capacity in health economics and financing. In 1989 the Government of China (GOC) enlisted the World Bank Institute (WBI) to work with China's Ministry of...

An analysis of the 1992-93 National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) revealed wide differences in levels, and distribution of childhood immunization between, and within Indian states. Evidence of total system failure (no immunization for all) in some low performance areas suggested that...

Every year, Ministries of Health the world over develop annual budgets for the health sector. Every year, donors, academicians, advocacy groups, medical trade unions and professional organizations, and health service managers and providers complain that the budgets have the wrong priorities....