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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Increasing access to institutional deliveries using demand and supply side incentives: early results from a quasi-experimental study

eographical inaccessibility, lack of transport, and financial burdens are some of the demand side constraints to maternal health services in Uganda, while supply side problems include poor quality services related to unmotivated health workers and inadequate supplies. Most public health interventions in Uganda have addressed only selected supply side issues, and universities have focused their efforts on providing maternal services at tertiary hospitals. To demonstrate how reforms at Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) can lead to making systemic changes that can improve maternal health services, a demand and supply side strategy was developed by working with local communities and national stakeholders.

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Medical Representatives in rural Bangladesh: Who are They and What Is Their Role in the Drug Market?

M Hafizur Rahman from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health looks at the role of medical representatives in Chakaria, Bangladesh. He focuses on their link with informal providers of health services in rural areas. The presentation was given on 11 July 2011 at the 8th World Congress on Health Economics (iHEA).

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WP15 - Nutritional Status of Children in India: Household Socio-Economic Condition as the Contextual Determinant

Despite recent achievement in economic progress in India, the fruit of development has failed to secure a better nutritional status among all children of the country. Growing evidence suggest there exists a socioeconomic gradient of childhood malnutrition in India. The present paper is an attempt to measure the extent of socio-economic inequality in chronic childhood malnutrition across major states of India and to realize the role of household socio-economic status (SES) as the contextual determinant of nutritional status of children.

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Changes in utilization of health services among poor and rural residents in Uganda: are reforms benefitting the poor?

Uganda implemented health sector reforms to make services more accessible to the population. An assessment of the likely impact of these reforms is important for informing policy. This paper describes the changes in utilization of health services that occurred among the poor and those in rural areas between 2002/3 and 2005/6 and associated factors.

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