RBF Knowledge Library

The learning page will provide a wide range of content that will be useful for everyone from expert practitioners to those unfamiliar with RBF but interested in learning more about it. You can expect to see these kinds of documents:

Country Examples: Synopses of the main features of RBF programs supported by the World Bank.

Technical Briefs: Substantial but short pieces that provide arguments for and against RBF-related policies, e.g., "Employing RBF in health systems strengthening efforts"; "RBF - Promises and Pitfalls"; "RBF and fiscal space".

Feature Stories: Narratives of actual RBF-related experience with a human-interest focus. Highly accessible to all readers and fun to read.

Technical Working Papers: Papers on technical topics of particular interest, e.g., "Perverse incentives in RBF", "Sustainability". These are journal-equivalent, peer-reviewed articles with references.

Tools and Guidelines: Working aids for those on the ground. "How to" guides, check lists on training, technical assistance, monitoring, evaluation, proposal design, etc.

Featured Documents

Notable documents recently posted.

Tools and Guidelines

Hospital Global Budgeting

Author/s: Robert Dredge

Hospital funding mechanisms are a key part of the process of reform in many health care systems. Many countries with publicly funded systems have introduced, or modified, systems of global budgets. Global budgets can be used to deliver changes to service delivery patterns.

[download, 524.03 KB] Added on February 2010

Feature Story

A Tale of Two Countries: Contracting for Health Services in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Author/s: Michael H.C. McDowell

Why did contracting delivery of health services to the non-profit sector work well in one country—but sluggishly in the other?

[A Tale of Two Countries: Contracting for Health Services in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) -> external link] Added on February 2010

Newsletters

RBF for Health Newsletter, Issue 3, February 2010

[download, 591.78 KB] Added on February 2010

Tools and Guidelines

Designing and Implementing Health Care Provider Payment Systems: "How-to" Manuals

Author/s: John C. Langenbrunner, Cheryl Cashin, Sheila O'Dougherty

The book has chapters on three of the most effective provider payment systems: primary care per capita (capitation) payment, case-based hospital payment, and hospital global budgets. It also includes a primer on a second policy lever used by purchasers, namely, contracting. This primer can be especially useful with one provider payment method: hospital global budgets. The volume's final chapter provides an outline for designing, launching, and running a health management information system, as well as the necessary infrastructure for strategic purchasing.

[Designing and Implementing Health Care Provider Payment Systems: "How-to" Manuals -> external link] Added on February 2010

Technical Working Papers

Paying Primary Health Care Centers for Performance in Rwanda

Author/s: Paulin Basinga, Paul Gertler, Agnes Binagwaho, Agnes Soucat, Jennifer Sturdy, Christel Vermeersch

This Policy Research Working Paper published by the World Bank reports on a study that examines the impact of Pay for Performance (P4P) on maternal and child health services in Rwanda. It uses data produced from a prospective quasiexperimental evaluation design nested into the P4P program rollout. P4P had a large and significant positive impact on institutional deliveries and preventive care visits by young children, and improved quality of prenatal care.

[Paying Primary Health Care Centers for Performance in Rwanda -> external link] Added on January 2010

Primary Links

Knowledge Documents