Performance-based Incentives/ Pay for Performance

Pay-for-performance (P4P) is a strategy that links payment to results. Health sector stakeholders increasingly see P4P as an important complement to investing in inputs such as buildings, drugs, and training when working to strengthen health systems, achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and improve health outcomes. By providing financial incentives that encourage work toward agreed-upon results, P4P can help solve challenges such as increasing access to, quality and use of health services.

Health Systems 20/20 is engaged in P4P efforts globally, having led developing country workshops and developed a P4P Blueprint Guide, which assists countries to think through and design country-specific P4P schemes. Most recent efforts include development of a P4P case study series and a review of developing country P4P experiences to improve maternal and child health. HS2020 has also collected scheme-specific P4P tools, which range from sample vouchers to examples of contracts, from guidance on how to determine payment recipients to sample indicators. Viewing this collection of P4P tools can contribute to understanding the complexities of P4P design and implementation and can help inform countries interested in introducing P4P.

View a new USAID publication on how to use Performance-based Incentives to improve health service delivery and health outcomes. For an overview of all HS2020 P4P activities, view a Health Systems 20/20 and Pay for Performance Brief.

We invite you to sign up for the Performance Based Incentives Network (PBIN), a place where a wide range of participants from implementers from around the globe, academics and donors post papers, news, and share information on P4P. We also welcome learning more about P4P efforts that are underway where you work. Send us your stories.

• Performance-Based Incentives Primer for USAID Missions
• Health Systems 20/20 and Pay for Performance (P4P) Brief

Key P4P Activities

Case Studies