New Toolkits for Engaging the Private Sector in Health
The World Bank releases two new toolkits to help policy makers learn tips and best practices for working with the private sector
In recent years, the global health community has increasingly recognized that the private sector plays a key role in the delivery of health care to the poor in lower- and middle-income countries. However, even as more and more policy makers have come to recognize the importance of the private sector, action to incorporate the private sector into national strategies has still lagged due to a number of open questions: How does one interact with the private sector? Where does the private sector have comparative advantage? What are best practices for structuring PPPs? What kinds of monitoring and evaluation systems work best for these partnerships?
Public versus private delivery of healthcare. Taken from the Private Health Policy Toolkit for Africa.
In response to these questions, the World Bank recently released two "toolkits" to help policy makers and their advisers make educated decisions about engaging the private sector: the Private Health Policy Toolkit* and the Private Health Policy Toolkit for Africa*.
These two toolkits cover a wide range of topics including:
- Why the private sector is an important component of the health system
- A "policy cycle" that can be used as a framework for engaging with the private sector
- Engagement tools for policy and dialogue, information exchange, regulation, financing, and public provision of services
- Tools for capacity development of the private sector
- Additional resources
The Private Health Policy Toolkit is generalized to be applicable worldwide and is meant for a wide range of audiences, including policy makers, technical staff, businesses and financial institutions. The Private Health Policy Toolkit for Africa on the other hand focuses just on Africa and is geared more towards policy makers and their advisers.
Be sure to check out both of these useful new tools!
*Note that these two toolkits were originally called the "Health Policy Toolkit" and the "Health In Africa Policy Toolkit," but as of October 26, were renamed as the "Private Health Policy Toolkit" and the "Private Health Policy Toolkit for Africa," respectively.