Primary Healthcare Provider Autonomy

This report describes the experiences of the 14 country members of the collaborative in the following areas: » PHC resource flows to primary care providers for various inputs: human resources, medicines, capital expenditure, and operations and maintenance » Strategies for, and experiences with, expanding provider autonomy in the use of PHC resources » Mechanisms to ensure accountability for providers’ use of PHC resources The 14 countries differ in how PHC resources flow. This report places them along a continuum based on the level of budget execution/spending and the types of inputs over which primary care providers have discretionary spending authority. In drafting this report, the technical facilitation team reviewed existing gray and published literature on the topic of provider autonomy and built on it by linking primary care provider autonomy with accountability arrangements that enable effective and efficient use of PHC funds. This report is relevant to practitioners interested in realigning how funds flow to primary care providers for patientcentered PHC and learning from the practical experiences of other countries in implementing PHC financing reforms.