Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

We at CHMI place a lot of focus on the health market, the actors and interactions that define it, and the interventions that improve the way it functions. Informal providers (IPs), individuals who are not formally trained or monitored to perform the full scope of services that they offer, are an important contingent of the broader health market, comprising over 50% of the sector in India and close to 96% in rural Bangladesh, according to some estimates. While the quality of their services is often debated, they are an undeniably significant source of care for many individuals in the developing world.

Much focus has thus far been placed on understanding slices of the broader informal health market – who are IPs? Where do they practice? What type of services do they offer? But informal providers don’t work in isolation. They function within a network of peers (both formal and informal), suppliers, consumers and entire communities, each offering their own unique set of incentives and influences that impact IP behavior. CHMI is looking to better understand these interactions in an effort to identify opportunities where interventions can affect positive change.

In order to do this, CHMI will be supporting 2-3 grantees to study the dynamics of the informal market for health in a sample of locations within three priority countries – Bangladesh, India and Nigeria.* The aim of these studies will be to inform a set of recommendations for policymakers and practitioners about the potential opportunities to leverage informal providers for better health and/or mitigate the challenges they present.

The full Request for Proposals (RFP) is attached below. Please feel free to contact me at mbelenky@resultsfordevelopment.org for more information. The proposal submission deadline is January 15, 2010.

* Proposals for other country work will be considered with strong justification.