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...

Many countries around the world are moving toward universal health coverage, while navigating through periods of economic crisis. The impact of the economic downturn of 2008-09 on the health care sector has renewed efforts to make health systems more resilient during and after economic...

This report is about how to improve health system outcomes in countries in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. Long-term historical trends indicate substantial room for improvement, especially when ECA's health outcomes are compared to those of the Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,...

Release of the final report of the International Comparison Program (ICP) and publication of new estimates of purchasing power parities (PPPs) in World Development Indicators 2008 are an important statistical milestone. The estimates offer a consistent and comprehensive set of data on the cost...

Project failures are not confined to the development world. In 2004 Hartman and Ashrafi found that the project failure rate is above 60 percent for construction, engineering, and other technology projects, despite all the advances in project management theory and practice. This book's interest,...

The Latin America and Caribbean region has had impressive achievements in the past decade, such as cutting extreme poverty by half and adding more than 50 million people to the middle class. Beyond the positive external conditions, it was the concerted efforts and dedication of the region's...

Performance-based financing (PBF) approaches have expanded rapidly in lower-and middle income countries, and especially in Africa. The number of countries has grown from three in 2006 to 32 in 2013. PBF schemes are flourishing and cause considerable demand for technical assistance in executing...