ICT and Demand Side Financing

Luke Boddam-Whetham, April 30th 2014

A. Brief overview of DSF

B. ICT and DSF – some examples

C. Case study: Mobile Money and vouchers

D. Advantages and challenges of ICT

Outline of the session

2

Demand-side and Supply-side

3

Supply-side = Money goes to the provider

Demand-side = Money goes to/via the client

A. Brief overview of DSF

Market for healthcare needs both demand and

supply

A. DSF within results based financing

Vouchers

4

A. Brief overview of DSF

Conditional Cash Transfers (CCT) Vouchers Health Insurance

5

B. ICT and DSF

B. ICT and DSF

• Data management

– Bespoke databases built to process

information from DSF programmes

enable efficient claims processing,

monitoring and data analysis

-

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

7,000,000

Ibn Khaldoon Hospital

Motherhood Center

Saber Dispensary

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

• Smart cards

– Cards given to beneficiaries with

microchips which store information

about the beneficiary e.g. Hunger

Safety Net programme Kenya

– Card linked to mobile money account

through unique ID e.g. Linda Jamii

B. ICT and DSF

C. Case study: Mobile Money and vouchers

Why mobile money (MM)?

• Very limited access to banks and

twice as many MM kiosks in early 2011;

• Transport cost, risk of fraud and

security risks linked to cash payments;

Marie Stopes Madagascar FP voucher programme

MM kiosk

9

Management

Agency

(MSI)

Targeted

clients

Service

provider

(health

facilities)

Voucher

distributed

Presents voucher

Delivers goods or services

③

Confirms

good/service

to provide

Payment

using mobile

money

①

②

④

⑤

C. Case study: Mobile Money for DSF (and SSF)

D. Case study: Mobile Money for DSF (and SSF)

Results:

• 29% of vouchers distributed reimbursed via

MM;

• 35% of claims reimbursed within 48hours;

• Increased financial and administrative

efficiency;

Marie Stopes Madagascar FP voucher programme

11

Advantages of ICT

• Efficiency: speed of data collection and analysis, speed of

payments for claims

• Improved data: accuracy of data, real time data for decision

making, produce good management data and data for

performance monitoring

• Transparency and fraud control

• Empowerment for health workers

• Phones can also be used for remote support and

supervision

12

Challenges of ICT

General

• phone ownership is low

• network coverage is limited

• costs of equipment

• tech literacy and general literacy

• training costs

• interoperability

Mobile Money

• transaction costs of m-money,

• liquidity

• policy environment (m-money, bihar)

13

Take away messages

• Technology is essential for transparency and good

governance in RBF

• Technology can improve efficiency of RBF systems

• Technology will play a key role in future RBF systems:

start using technology solutions at a small scale and

learn by doing.

• New technology is attractive but beware of the hype:

do not underestimate the cost, complexity and burden.

14

Thank you!