Health financing issues in Senegal: a review of the scientific literature using the scoping review method

Abstract

For the past two decades, Senegalese public authorities have been stepping up initiatives to provide quality healthcare to the population, while guaranteeing their financial protection against impoverishing health expenditures. This political will has led to the adoption of universal health coverage (UHC) as the benchmark for health policy. Ideally, policy decisions and their implementation should be evidence-based.

The aim of this article is to provide a review of the issues surrounding health financing and the objectives of UHC in Senegal, based on existing scientific literature. Using the scoping review method proposed by Arskey, H and O'Malley, L (2005), 286 references were obtained. After evaluation according to the inclusion criteria, 30 articles were retained and analyzed. Analyses were performed according to three themes: dimensions of the financing function (resource mobilization, pooling, entitlement, and provider payment mechanisms), intermediate objectives (equity in resource distribution, efficiency, transparency, and accountability) and final goals (equity in service utilization, quality of care and universal financial protection) of UHC.

Results show that the treatment of health financing issues has been limited to resources mobilization, to the detriment of pooling resources and services purchasing. The fact that some objectives, whether intermediates or finals, are under considered in the literature points to the existence of a gap. The production of scientific evidence needed to support decision-making must consider the established literature gap, for progress towards UHC in Senegal.

Keywords : financing, universal health coverage, scoping review, Senegal

Classification JEL: I10

Paper type: Theoretical Research