Articles in this supplement have been modified from chapters in the book Une politique publique de santé et ses contradictions. La gratuité des soins au Burkina Faso, au Mali et au Niger, J.-P. Olivier de Sardan and V. Ridde (eds), 2014, Karthala, Paris, with the permission of the publisher.
The data and analysis presented in this special issue result from research funded by IDRC (International Development Research Centre, Canada) and AFD (Agence Francaise de Developpement) on the basis of a proposal submitted by LASDEL (Laboratoire d’etudes et de recherches sur les dynamiques sociales et le developpement local, Niamey, Niger) and CRCHUM (Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Universite de Montreal, Canada), with the collaboration of IRSS (Institut de recherche en sciences de la sante, CNRST, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso) and Miseli (Bamako, Mali).