Gil Shapira (The World Bank)

The effectiveness of Pay-for-Performance reforms in Sub-Saharan African health systems: Impact evaluation results from four national pilots  

Date: May, 5th At 12,00h (note: earlier than usual)

Room: 24 013 (Mercè Rodoreda Builiding) - Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

Abstract: This study evaluates the impact of two interventions introduced as part of the Rwanda Community Performance-Based Financing to increase coverage of targeted maternal and child health services: rewards to cooperatives of community health workers and demand-side conditional in-kind transfers. The evaluation exploits experimental design with intervention randomly assigned at the sub-district level for a duration of two and a half years. The analysis indicates no impact of the incentives to cooperatives of community health workers. However, conditional in-kind demand-side incentives are shown to significantly increase take up of timely antenatal and postnatal consultations. 

Bio: Gil Shapira is an Economist in the Human Development and Public Services Team of the Development Research Group. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. His current research focuses on analyzing demographic and health issues in developing countries, with an emphasis on Sub-Saharan Africa. More specifically, in his current research he studies decision-making in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the transition from adolescence to adulthood in Malawi, and the impact of interventions to improve maternal and child health in different countries.