Getting Health Workers to Rural Areas : Innovative Analytic Work to Inform Policy Making
Decision makers face serious challenges in attracting health workers to rural areas, in both the developed and developing world, but while they have access to a wide range of policy options, the effectiveness of interventions is highly contingent o...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/665861468163479749/Getting-health-workers-to-rural-areas-innovative-analytic-work-to-inform-policy-making http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27845 |
| Summary: | Decision makers face serious challenges
in attracting health workers to rural areas, in both the
developed and developing world, but while they have access
to a wide range of policy options, the effectiveness of
interventions is highly contingent on context. To make them
more effective, decision makers need to have an in-depth
understanding of, especially, the factors that influence
individual workers decisions on choice of practice,
particularly regarding relocation to rural areas. The
current paper presents results of an empirical study
conducted in Liberia and Vietnam using a discrete choice
experiment (DCE). The study's aim was to predict the
likelihood of health workers taking up a rural area job
under alternative incentive schemes. This study is the first
DCE analysis to then go the extra step of costing out the
alternative packages. The analysis revealed quite different
results for the two countries. The most powerful single
incentive in motivating workers to practice in rural areas
was increased pay in Liberia, and long-term education in
Vietnam. The cost-effectiveness of incentives also varies by
country. In Liberia, monetary incentives were by the most
cost effective while in Vietnam it was opportunities for
skills development. While the study methodology needs
further enhancement, especially costing of incentive
packages, the work shows that a DCE analysis can be a
powerful tool in informing the design of rural area
incentive schemes in developing countries. |
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