With a special focus on strategic purchasing and contracting of services from nongovernmental providers, 'Spending Wisely' reviews ways to make public spending on health care more efficient and equitable in developing countries. The underlying premise is that it is necessary to separate the function of financing from service delivery to improve public sector performance and accountability. In moving from passive budgeting to active purchasing of health care, the authors recommend policymakers ask five fundamental questions: for whom to buy, what to buy, from whom to buy, how to pay and at what price? In coming to grips with these questions, different authors throughout the book emphasize the important role of organizational, institutional and management issues to the performance of public spending on health care in low- and middle-income countries.