Full Report - Research for Development - Department for ...

Background
review focused on explicit evaluations of interventions aimed at improving health
outcomes for poor people in urban areas. We did not seek to exclude any particular
types of intervention and as such our review was designed to identify evaluation of
models of delivery but also discrete interventions that might be part of a wider
model of delivery. These could include clinical or non-clinical interventions, such
as changes in financing, regulation and service organisation. They might also range
in focus from the individual to health systems reform. The review aimed not only
to draw lessons from the stated effect of interventions, but to provide causal chain
analysis for these effects as well as to draw lessons from how, where, and why
different models of delivery showed effects.
Given the likely paucity of evidence from urban areas in LICs we also aimed to
include LMCs and to be non-restrictive in defining poor and urban populations. The
methodology and appendices set out exact definitions, but ‘urban’ was essentially
defined as ‘non-rural’. With regard to poverty, we sought to include any study
making explicit reference to models of delivery for identified poor or socioeconomically
disadvantaged groups at the sub-national level, irrespective of the
definition of poverty. We feel that our inclusive approach is most appropriate as a
first measure in establishing the evidence base for the effects of interventions
aimed at improving maternal and infant outcomes in poor urban populations.
What are the effects of different models of delivery for improving maternal and infant
health outcomes for poor people in urban areas in low income and lower middle income
countries? 13