Demand side financing in health: How far can it address the issue of low utilization in developing countries?

The focus of this paper is twofold: first based on a global literature review it examines the definitional issues around demand side financing (DSF) and presents a schematic that can be used to classify schemes; second it attempts to fit selected case studies of health-care interventions in India into the proposed schematic to both test the template’s usefulness and to enable a better understanding of what qualifies as a DSF initiative. Finally based on a survey of literature on evaluation the paper presents the main benefits and drawbacks of DSF and provides some operational insights into where DSF stands as a financing tool for improved health seeking behavior in developing countries. The discussion focuses mostly on reproductive health but additional examples have also been added where relevant.