This volume focuses on strategic purchasing of quality health services and presents a policy framework for moving from passive budget processes to strategic purchasing, with five main components: 1) political economy; 2) policy design across three health financing functions; 3) organizational structure; 4) institutional (legal/regulatory) environment; 5) and management capacity. Part 1 of this volume unpacks this framework component-by-component and Part II delves deeply into the theoretical economic underpinnings of strategic purchasing. Part III offers an evaluation framework for existing purchasing arrangements. Finally, the volume presents six regional reviews of current resource allocation and purchasing arrangements available.