On April 24 and 25, USAID is convening the Evidence Summit on Enhancing Provision and Use of Maternal Health Services through Financial Incentives. During the Summit, Health Systems 20/20 colleagues Dr. Laurel Hatt and Dr. Rena Eichler will join economists and maternal health specialists from academia, development organizations, and government to examine evidence on whether financial mechanisms impact maternal and neonatal health outcomes, behaviors, and services and explore the contextual issues which mitigate or facilitate impact.
Health Systems 20/20’s Dr. Laurel Hatt is co-chairing one of the teams looking at the evidence for demand-side financing approaches such as vouchers, user fee exemptions, and price subsidies. In preparation, she helped lead a panel of experts to review both peer‐reviewed and gray literature through the lens of two focal questions:
- What financial incentives, if any, are linked positively or negatively to maternal and neonatal health outcomes, the provision and use of maternal health services, or to care‐seeking behavior by women?
- What are the contextual factors that impact the effectiveness of these financial incentives?
Each team prepared a draft evidence synthesis and recommendations for policy, practice, and further research, which they will share with maternal health experts, economists, and country stakeholders at the Summit.
Dr. Rena Eichler, Health Systems 20/20, is contributing to another evidence review team focused on supply-side incentives.
Anticipated outcomes of the Evidence Summit include 1) initial policy and practice recommendations for low- and middle-income country governments and donors; 2) identification of evidence gaps to inform a unified research agenda; and 3) creation of a community of practice linking the maternal health and economics communities to advance the evidence base together for sustainable effective use of financial incentives.