Government health spending is an important source of sustainable health funding in order to attain the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In low and middle-income countries, domestic government per capita spending on health needed to ensure universal coverage with the most essential health services is estimated at $112 according to Stenberg et al. (2017). In 2015, in West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), average domestic government spending on health per capita was $26 (about one quarter of all health spending), far short of the $112 target. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the determinants of domestic government health spending with emphasis on the quality of governance. We used panel data from the eight WAEMU member states covering the period 2000-2015 and the generalized least squares method for empirical investigation. The results show that an improvement in the quality of governance increases domestic government health spending. The study suggests the policy-makers of the WAEMU member state to improve the quality of governance in order to increase domestic government health spending and allow people to access essential health services and enjoy a better state of health.

Les résultats des estimations montrent, à partir d’un modèle logit multinomial emboîté à trois niveaux, que le niveau de vie, le coût des consultations et la distance d’accès aux centres de santé ont un impact significatif sur la demande en soins de santé prénataux. Par ailleurs, les femmes en âge de procréer et possédant un bon niveau d’éducation ont une propension suffisante à recourir aux soins de santé prénataux. Ces résultats suggèrent que des soins de santé prénataux au Burkina Faso peuvent être améliorés en les vulgarisant en zones rurales, en généralisant les politiques éducatives et en menant des politiques spécifiques sur la santé de la reproduction.

This paper examines the trade promoting effects of monetary union in the context of the CFA franc zone. Using the gravity model as a basis for predicting the volume of trade between countries, the study attempts to estimate the potential for increased trade within the CFA franc zone. The study shows that the CFA countries have experienced relatively low monetary growth, relatively strict budgetary disciplines, and consistently low inflation. However, the results of the study indicate that monetary union in the case of the CFA franc zone did not promote economic integration among member countries in the form of expanded trade. The actual trade among these countries remained small despite the use of common foreign exchange policy and free transferability of resources among these countries.

The results presented here want to make a contribution in the field of transport. Our purpose is to shed light on the evolution of public transport costs as the size of the city increases. We also try to highlight the role of certain factors that are characteristic of the supply: level of service, vehicle capacity, spatial extension, frequencies, etc. In this article, we show, from a sample of 25 African cities, that it is doubtful that economies will emerge in the operation of urban public transport when the size of cities grows. The growth in operating expenses, more than proportional to the size of the cities, can be explained by both a growth in the unit cost (at the place-kilometer-offered) and the offer to the inhabitant. Large cities (in terms of population) escape the drift of unit charges, but not per capita charges because of a particularly strong supply. The comparison between large cities and small towns suggests that the capacity of the buses in circulation can be a decisive factor in the improvement of productivity. Capacity growth, however, appears to be occurring in very large cities, such as Abidjan or Bamako, whose counterpart may well be @ the lengthening of travel times and distances. These results then raise the question of a divergence between the performance of urban services and the economic efficiency of spaces.