Abolishing User Fees in Africa

Abolishing User Fees in Africa

In its 2008 annual report, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to " resist the temptation to rely on user fees " [1, p. 26]. Indeed, the consensus in the scientific community is that user fees have harmful effects on health care use and household budgets, especially for the poorest [2]. Still, as the WHO observes, " …most of the world's health-care systems continue to rely on th...

No user fees, but perhaps user fees.

Does Abolishing Fees Reduce School Quality? Evidence from Kenya

In 2003 Kenya abolished user fees in all government primary schools. We find that this Free Primary Education (FPE) policy resulted in a decline in public school quality and increased demand for private schooling. However, the former did not reflect a decline in value added by public schools as anticipated if fees contribute to local accountability but rather the selection of weaker pupils into...

Abolishing user fees for children and pregnant women trebled uptake of malaria-related interventions in Kangaba, Mali.

Malaria is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in children under 5 in Mali. Health centres provide primary care, including malaria treatment, under a system of cost recovery. In 2005, Médecins sans Frontieres (MSF) started supporting health centres in Kangaba with the provision of rapid malaria diagnostic tests and artemisinin-based combination therapy. Initially MSF subsidized mal...

Removing user fees for primary care in Africa: the need for careful action.