Government contracting of privateorganizations is an increasingly common tool to meet thegrowing demand for quality reproductive health care indeveloping nations. This guide brings together informationabout such contracting experiences in a way to serve thepractical needs of World Bank staff and their governmentcounterparts in developing countries interested in tryingcontracting. Contracting is not a cure-all for ailing healthsystems, and there exists relatively little systematicevaluation of the contracting experience in developingcountries. Still, many in the field recognize the potentialof contracting as a powerful tool to improve reproductivehealth care. This guide touches on some of the reasons whygovernments go the contracting route. The guide is meant tobe used during the development of new projects or during thesupervision phase, and assumes that the reader: hasidentified population and reproductive health as an issuefor the health sector in a particular country or region;already has decided to include a reproductive healthcomponent in the loan and wants to involve the privatesector actively in the project; is considering opportunitiesfor contracting out of reproductive health care; or islooking for ideas and models for contracting.