The effect of social franchising on access to and quality of health services in low- and middle-income countries

BACKGROUND: Social franchising has developed as a possible means of improving provision of health services through engaging the non-state sector in low- and middle-income countries. OBJECTIVES: To examine the evidence that social franchising has on access to and quality of health services in low- and middle-income countries. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Group Specialised Register (up to October 2007), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (The Cochrane Library 2007, Issue 3), MEDLINE, Ovid (1950 to September Week 3 2007), EMBASE, Ovid (1980 to 2007 Week 38), CINAHL, Ovid (1982 to September Week 3 2007), EconLit, WebSPIRS (1969 to Sept 2007), LILACS, Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index (1975 to…