Inequalities in Maternal Healthcare Spending: Evidence from Burkina Faso

This brief examines how public and overall health spending on institutional delivery services have become more egalitarian as policies targeting universal maternal care have been rolled out in Burkina Faso. Over time, we observe increased equality for both public and overall health spending, albeit the distribution of benefits remained pro-least-poor even by 2017, especially so at hospital level. Regional differences in the distribution of public and overall benefits persisted, but became considerably smaller over time, especially for overall spending. Further policy action is needed to tackle persisting causes of inequality and reduce regional differences.