Despite the existence of effective interventions, there are many developing countries which are not on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for health. In many countries, the delivery of health services is inadequate and one way of improving the situation is to contract with non-state providers. Effective contracting for health services can be facilitated by using a systematic approach, as described in this toolkit, which addresses key issues. The toolkit also includes a review of 14 evaluated examples of contracting in developing countries which concludes that the current weight of evidence indicates that contracting improves the coverage and quality of services rapidly.