User fees have been promoted in low and middle income countries in response to scarce and inequitably distributed resources and are intended to generate revenue that can be used to improve health services. Experience indicates, however, that user fees are likely to result in deterioration of...

Objectives: To determine the extent that malaria treatment expenditures deplete household income and potentially lead to sacrificing of other basic household expenditures. Methods: The study was undertaken in six towns (3 urban and 3 rural) in southeast Nigeria. Pre-tested structured...

Like many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia's human resource problems are impeding progress towards global health targets. These include difficulties of attracting health workers into public service employment, retaining them, and ensuring an equitable distribution between urban...

Rationale: In Africa, attrition of civil servants including health workers has reached critical rates in recent years and many countries have implemented incentive programs without an empirical basis to guide their choice of intervention. The recent increased exodus of health workers from...

Financial incentives are increasingly being advocated as an effective means to change health-related behaviours and improve health outcomes. There is, however, little evidence on whether financial incentives work in low-income countries, particularly when implemented at scale. This paper...