Challenging El Salvador's rural health care strategy

Maureen Lewis, Gunnar Eskeland and Ximena Traa-Valerezo

No 2164, Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank

Abstract: Can a supply-driven network of under-skilled rural health promoters make a difference in rural health care? There are few, if any, signs that the current rural health strategy in El Salvador is working, whether the health promoters are government employees or non-governmental organization (NGO) workers. The authors arrived at this conclusion after conducting interviews and analyzing primary and secondary data. The village-based health promoters lack incentives and supervision, and ultimately have little to offer to local communities. NGO workers are more successful than government workers, but neither group performs satisfactorily. Even the rural poor use private services quite intensively, despite the high cost of the services and of getting access to them. Moreover, people seem to seek the services they need. They select self-treatment in 50 percent of illness episodes, with about the same success rate as when they use health providers. Other options should be considered, as results can be improved without increasing costs.

Keywords: Health Systems Development&Reform; Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Early Child and Children's Health; Public Health Promotion; Housing&Human Habitats; Regional Rural Development; Health Systems Development&Reform; Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems; Health Monitoring&Evaluation; Housing&Human Habitats (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999-08-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSC ... d/PDF/multi_page.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2164

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Research Working Paper Series from The World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20433. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Roula I. Yazigi ().