Damien de Walque is a Lead Economist in the Development Research Group (Human Development Team) at the World Bank. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 2003. His research interests include health and education and the interactions between them. His current work is focused on evaluating the impact of financial incentives on health and education outcomes.
He has worked on evaluating the impact of HIV/AIDS interventions and policies in several African countries. He is also evaluating the health and education impacts of cash transfers programs in developing countries. On the supply side of health services, he managed a large portfolio of impact evaluations of results-based financing in the health sector leading to the publication the World Bank Policy Research Report, Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work?
In many low- and middle-income countries, health coverage has improved dramatically in the past two decades, but health outcomes have not. As such, effective coverage—a measure of service delivery that meets a minimum standard of quality—remains unacceptably low. "Improving Effective Coverage in Health: Do Financial Incentives Work?" examines one specific policy approach to improving effective coverage: financial incentives in the form of performance-based financing (PBF), a package reform that typically includes performance pay to frontline health workers as well as facility autonomy, transparency, and community engagement.
A growing share of the burden of disease across the world is associated with risky behaviors by individuals. Drug use, smoking, alcohol, unhealthy eating causing obesity, and unsafe sex are highly prevalent in low-income countries, even though they are traditionally associated with richer countries. Understanding the factors driving those behaviors represents a priority not only from a public health perspective but from a broader development one.
Field experiments in a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have shown that financial incentives can reduce the incidence of HIV. In this talk, Damien de Walque Damien de Walque discussed the history of the HIV-AIDS epidemic, the evolution of the public health response, and experiments to reduce risky sexual behavior.
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