Qualitative Research to Explain and Unpack Quantitative Findings from the Performance-Based Financing Impact Evaluation in Burkina Faso

Performance-based Financing (PBF) was first introduced to the health sector in Burkina Faso in 2011, and scaled up to a total of 15 out of 63 health districts in 2014. The scale-up was accompanied by a robust impact evaluation to determine the effects of PBF on the utilization and quality of health services, which was jointly conducted by the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Germany, and Centre MURAZ, Burkina Faso. This impact evaluation was recently completed, with results showing effects of PBF on only a few indicators. In order to better understand why results fell short of producing the intended impact, and to explore issue relevant to a potential scale-up of PBF in Burkina Faso and elsewhere, the study team followed up on the quantitative results with a qualitative study, with financing by the World Bank. This report presents the findings of this qualitative study.