You are hereHome › College of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities (CASSH) › Department of Anthropology › Marten, Meredith › Hospital side hustles Style APAChicagoHarvardIEEEMLATurabian Choose the citation style. Marten, M. G., & Sullivan, N. (2019). Hospital side hustles: Funding conundrums and perverse incentives in Tanzania’s publicly-funded health sector. Social Science & Medicine. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112662 Hospital side hustles Details Title Hospital side hustles: Funding conundrums and perverse incentives in Tanzania's publicly-funded health sector Contributor(s) Marten, Meredith G. (author)Sullivan, Noelle (author) Located In Social Science & Medicine ISSN 0277-9536 Date 2019 DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112662 Use/Reproduction 2019 Elsevier Ltd. Abstract Following three decades of international financial institutions implementing austerity measures in sub-Saharan Africa, many health systems remain chronically underfinanced. During this period, countries like Tanzania have moved from a post-independence vision of a strong social sector providing free care for citizens, to a model of increased privatization of public health facilities, shifting the burden of self-financing to individual health facilities and the constituents they serve. Drawing on longitudinal ethnographic research and document analysis undertaken between 2008 and 2017 within three publicly-funded hospitals in north-central Tanzania, this article examines the actions and perspectives of administrators to explore how novel shifts towards semi-privatization of public facilities are perceived as taken-for-granted solutions to funding shortfalls. Specifically, hospital administrators used “side hustle” strategies of projectification and market-based income generating activities to narrow the gap between inadequate state financing and necessary recurrent expenditures. Examples from publicly-funded hospitals in Tanzania demonstrate that employing side hustles to address funding conundrums derives from perverse incentives: while these strategies are supposed to generate revenues to sustain or bolster services to poor clients, in practice these market-based approaches erode the ability of publicly-funded hospitals to meet their obligations to the poorest. These cases show that neoliberal ideas promoting health financing through public-private initiatives offer little opportunity in practice for strengthening health systems in low income countries, undermining those health systems' ability to achieve the goal of universal health care. Subject(s) Health systems financingHealth systems strengtheningTanzaniaAusterityNeoliberalismHospital ethnography