Pervasive corruption plagues health service delivery across developing and emerging market countries. Nurses and doctors extort payments from the poor for services that should be free. Counterfeit drugs are sent to hospitals and clinics as public officials take kick-backs from rogue vendors. Illicit payments are often demanded of the very poor by ambulance services and others offering to transport the ill.
Citizens, however, are well placed to be effective monitors of and advocates for quality health services. Relative to education, for example, where parents may not be able to judge the quality of the learning that takes place over time in the classroom, people visiting a clinic know immediately whether they are receiving the services they need in the ways that are honest and compliant with the law.
The Partnership for Transparency Fund has supported landmark projects to improve health care delivery services to the very poor. Through its support for citizen monitoring of health services in over a dozen dedicated health projects in six countries in the past decade, as well as experience gained across the board in galvanizing citizens to fight corruption, PTF is gaining valuable experience in sustainable project approaches.
Click here to learn more about the lessons PTF is drawing from its work in the health sector.
