ArticleBulletin of the World Health Organization2011
Can performance-based financing be used to reform health systems in developing countries?
Article in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Factors That Influence Data Use to Improve Health Service Delivery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.Global health, science and practice · 2020Pooled it
- Can Combining Performance-Based Financing With Equity Measures Result in Greater Equity in Utilization of Maternal Care Services? Evidence From Burkina Faso.International journal of health policy and management · 2022Trial
- Decentralized facility financing versus performance-based payments in primary health care: a large-scale randomized controlled trial in Nigeria.BMC medicine · 2021Trial
- Incentives to change: effects of performance-based financing on health workers in Zambia.Human resources for health · 2017Trial
- Protocol for the evaluation of a pay for performance programme in Pwani region in Tanzania: a controlled before and after study.Implementation science : IS · 2013Trial
- Domestic resources for surgical care financing: a descriptive analysis of global health expenditure trends and illustrative case studies on fiscal mechanisms in LMICs.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Diversity and Representation in Cardiovascular Research: Evidence Gaps, Emerging Models, and Policy Implications.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Review
- Counter-verification in performance-based financing: key insights from the Côte d'Ivoire experience.Global health action · 2025Article
- The effect of performance-based financing interventions on health worker motivation and job satisfaction: experimental evidence from six national pilots.Health policy and planning · 2025Article
- Performance-based payments and intrinsic motivation among primary healthcare workers in China: a cross-sectional survey.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Reducing fragmentation of primary healthcare financing for more equitable, people-centred primary healthcare.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Barriers to Implementing a Quality Improvement Program in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Adequacy of Resources.JCO global oncology · 2024Review
- Article
- Reviewing the evidence on health financing for effective coverage: do financial incentives work?BMJ global health · 2022Review
- Article
- Social Determinants Screening with Social History: Pediatrician and Resident Perspectives from a Middle-Income Country.Maternal and child health journal · 2021Article
- Exploring the challenges and features of implementing performance-based payment plan in hospitals: a protocol for a systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2021Article
- Evaluating the impact of results-based motivating system on noncommunicable diseases risk factors in Iran: Study protocol for a field trial.Medical journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran · 2021Article
- Does payment for performance increase performance inequalities across health providers? A case study of Tanzania.Health policy and planning · 2018Article
- The bumpy trajectory of performance-based financing for healthcare in Sierra Leone: agency, structure and frames shaping the policy process.Globalization and health · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Over the past 15 years, performance-based financing has been implemented in an increasing number of developing countries, particularly in Africa, as a means of improving health worker performance. Scaling up to national implementation in Burundi and Rwanda has encouraged proponents of performance-based financing to view it as more than a financing mechanism, but increasingly as a strategic tool to reform the health sector. We resist such a notion on the grounds that results-based and economically driven interventions do not, on their own, adequately respond to patient and community needs, upon which health system reform should be based. We also think the debate surrounding performance-based financing is biased by insufficient and unsubstantiated evidence that does not adequately take account of context nor disentangle the various elements of the performance-based financing package.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.