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Voucher system floated
2007-05-13 09:42:40
By Simon Kivamwo
A renowned Kenyan Medical Doctor-cum-population expert, Professor Richard Muga, has suggested that if poor African countries are to achieve the Millenium Development Goals on reproductive health, an Output-Based Aid (OBA) strategy should be observed.
Popularaly termed as ``voucher system``, OBA is a strategy for using performance-based subsidies to support the delivery of basic services where policy concerns would justify funding to complement or replace user-fees.
The professor floated the option, which he said would obviously benefit the poor-rural women and families, at a Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) media meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya, last week.
The meeting that had been organised by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), attracted senior health reporters and experts from 10 African countries.
Speaking on the OBA principles, Prof. Muga pointed out that financing inputs such as facilities and equipment did not necessarily result in improved health outcomes.
``Therefore, the OBA concept focuses on financing agreed on outputs with pre-defined quality rather than pre-defines inputs,`` he said.
The medic said instead of funding construction of modern hospital facilities, purchasing cars and letting poor patients pay for services, the voucher system allows poor citizens to access health care services without paying anything.
This system, he said, involves delegating service delivery to a third-party, typically private firms, but also public utilities, NGOs, and community based organisations, under contracts that tie disbursement of public funding to the services or outputs actually delivered.
``I am convinced that once it is observed, this strategy stands a better chance to provide quality health care services to the poor families such as safe motherhood, family planning and, of course, gender based violence recovery,`` said Prof. Muga who is a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National.
Co-ordinating Agency for Population and Development in Kenya.
The MDG are ambitious to see the health status of many of the poor African families improve by three quarters come year 2015.
MDGs number three to six focus on promoting gender quality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
The professor said the pilot programme has been operational in five towns of Kenya Kisumu, Kitui, Kiambu, Korogocho and Viwanda.
He remarked: ``The way we see it, the strategy is yielding positive results,`` adding that they would most likely advise other East African countries to embark on OBA.
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