Lao PDR

Many developing countries are examining whether to institute incentive packages that increase the share of health workers who opt to locate in rural settings; however, uncertainty exists with respect to the expected net cost (or benefit) from these packages. CapacityPlus utilized findings from discrete choice experiment surveys applied to students training to be health professionals and costing analyses in Lao People’s Democratic Republic to model the anticipated effect of incentive packages on new worker location decisions and direct costs. In this example, incentive packages that do not invest in capital-intensive components generally should produce larger net benefits. Combining discrete choice experiment surveys, costing surveys, and cost-benefit analysis methods may be replicated by other developing countries to calculate whether health worker incentive packages are viable policy options.

Designing Evidence-Based Strategies Poster

Many countries struggle to attract and retain sufficient numbers and types of health workers to provide quality services in rural and remote areas. Ministries of health often rely on external partners to develop the evidence base for formulating retention strategies, use less rigorous methodologies, or forego data altogether when making policy decisions. Presented at the Second Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Beijing on November 1, 2012, this poster describes two new tools—the Rapid Retention Survey Toolkit and the iHRIS Retain costing tool for retention interventions—and related results from Ministry of Health surveys in Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Uganda.

Échos 8

Les docteurs Chanthakhath Papassarang, Phouthone Vangkonevilay et Outavong Phathammavong expliquent comment évaluer les préférences des agents de santé afin de déterminer les mesures d’incitation les plus efficaces pour faciliter la prestation de services en milieu rural.