18 October 2007: Marie Stopes International and KfW host panel discussion at the Women Deliver Conference on “Demand side financing’ for scaling up health services for women”

Marie Stopes International and the German development bank KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW) jointly sponsored a panel discussion on demand-side financing at the Women Deliver Conference in London. The aim of the discussion was examine to what extent Output Based Aid (OBA) could be used for scaling up maternal health services and reducing maternal mortality.

Presenters included Cyprian Awiti, Country Director of Marie Stopes Kenya; Francis Kundu, from the National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development, Government of Kenya; Srabani Majumder, State NGO Coordinator, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, India and Carmen Nonay, Global Partnership for Output Based Aid, the World Bank.

Using practical case studies from Marie Stopes International and others, the speakers discussed voucher schemes and pay-per-client strategies from the perspectives of designer, implementer, provider, financier and government monitor. The discussion explored the lessons for introducing OBA on a wider scale and harmonising donor funding behind government health strategies to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5.