Cost efficiency in maternal and child health and family planning service delivery in Bangladesh: implications for NGOs.

The main goal of the health reform programme recently initiated in Bangladesh is to reduce costs and improve cost efficiency of the service delivery systems, and thereby ensure the sustainable provision of essential health and family planning services. With significant dependency on external funding, attainment of this objective is more critical for non-government organization (NGO) programmes. The paper analyzes costs of the NGO service delivery systems for maternal and child health and family planning, and identifies areas for increasing efficiency, especially through reducing labour costs and increasing service outputs.