This paper reviews the current evidence base regarding efforts to overcome constraints to effective health service delivery in low and middle-income countries. A systematic literature review was chosen as the approach to gather and analyse existing knowledge about how to improve the...

The Commission on Macroeconomics and Health recommended a significant expansion in funding for health interventions in poor countries. However, there are a range of constraints to expanding access to health services: as well as an absolute lack of resources, access to health interventions is...

The supply and geographic distribution of health workers are major constraints to improving health in low-income countries. A number of recent studies have highlighted the shortage of skilled health workers in many settings (World Health Organization [WHO], 2006), the impact this has on health...

Objectives To examine the levels of geographic inequities in households' choice of providers, mode of diagnosis and drugs for the treatment of malaria.Methods Interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect information from 2250 randomly selected respondents from six malaria-endemic...

There is a growing appreciation of the role of the private sector in expanding the use of key health interventions. At the policy level, this has raised questions about how public sector resources can best be used to encourage the private sector in order to achieve public health impact. Social...

This study uses a partial equilibrium simulation model to explore how price subsidies for insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) affect households' purchases of ITNs. The model describes the ITN market in a typical developing country and is applied to the situation in Tanzania, where the...

Health systems in low- and middle-income countries: an economic and policy perspective outlines the key aspects and issues concerning health systems of low- and middle-income countries, recognising the current global context within which these systems operate and the dynamics of this context. It...

The world’s poorest pay for professional services and thus are in a “market,” whether the services are provided in the public or private sectors. The associated problems of unequal information are particularly acute in undergoverned countries, where state regulation is weak. We...