This webinar is hosted by the thematic working group on private sector engagement of the TWG FCAS (Barbara Profeta, Ann Canavan, Nigel Pearson and Andre Griegspoor)
On September 27th 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world and dominated much of the global health preoccupations, the TWG FCAS and TWG PSIH organized a joint webinar that explored the role of local businesses in achieving UHC in frontier economies. COVID-19 has yet again elevated the concerns about weak health systems in the face of a major event such as a pandemic, thus how do we address the systemic weaknesses that have been revealed during the past nine months since the onset of COVID-19. Such glaring gaps signal the need for major investment by both public and private sector. We also see the need to integrate global health security into the health system as a cornerstone and not an afterthought. Investing in preparedness and mitigation is too late when faced with major threats.
Private sector providers (both for profit and not for profit), play a major role in all areas of healthcare provision including direct service delivery, production of drugs and commodities and related supply chain and key support functions, such as finance, transportation, and information technology services. Nevertheless, as a recent study commissioned by WHO in the EMRO region stressed, there is a lack of data and documentation about the private sector service delivery contributions, and the difficulty to factor it into innovative and sustainable health systems strengthening strategies.
Why do frontier economies matter in the pursuit of increased understanding of private sector engagement in health? Despite the absence of a public sector strategy to engage the private sector in the health system in most FCAS contexts, flourishing private sector activities tend to organically fill gaps left by a clearly dysfunctional or distressed public system.
Between June and August 2020, the HSG 2020 Private Sector in Health Working Group held a digital unconference series, which pointed to similar reality in much of the COVID-19 world: new forms of private sector engagement and public-private partnerships were born (many of them in the Global South) as pragmatic solutions were needed urgently to respond to the pandemic threat and related health care needs. Finding pragmatic solutions to unexpected shocks, rapidly adapting to uncertainties, and navigating permanent flexible thinking, are attitudes familiar to FCAS. Therefore, the fragilities exposed worldwide as a result of the unfolding global pandemic create an opportunity for looking at Fragile and Conflict Affected Settings (FCAS) with a new lens, one that moves its focus away from chronic failure.
This webinar proposes to explore promising working practices, as well as empirical knowledge acquired through trial and error approaches in FCAS contexts, and opens a discussion about how better documentation and learning from these experiences can be achieved to the benefit of a broader UHC agenda.
Opening and welcome to participants and speakers (Priya Balasubramaniam – Digital Series convener, Barbara Profeta)
Objective: To capture the landscape of private sector engagement in FCAS, before and during Covid-19.
Key message: in order to achieve UHC we cannot afford not to involve all actors in the discussions, including the private sector, right from the planning stage. In FCAS a very high % of health expenditures concerns private provision of services which leads to high out of pocket spending for the most vulnerable households.
Speaker; Dr Nigel Pearson will provide an overview of main findings from a recent study on private sector role in the Middle East region (WHO EMRO)
Objective: To explore country-based experiences from for profit and not for profit private sector providers delivering models for delivery of frontline health services in FCAS.
Key message for panel session: FCAS provide a fertile environment for successful experiences, but the fragmentation of the health systems, as well as security /access issues makes systematic documentation challenging. We need more research in this field to bring these stories to the global awareness. Academia should engage more on this front.
Michael Chommie provides an overview of PSI's work on developing a social enterprise model for health service delivery in various contexts from a multi country perspective with Dr. Moh Moh Lwin, PSI Myanmar speaking about the Sun Quality Health Network.
Dr. Harry Jeene explores the efforts to ensure the continuity of drugs supply chain during COVID in Afghanistan
Dr. Bothania Attal speaks about the roles and challenges of informal networks for service delivery in Yemen
Dr. Abdi Dalmar recounts his experiences establishing and scaling a franchised service delivery model in Somalia
Building a coherent approach to supporting private sector engagement
Setting the scene
Speaker; Dr. David Clarke leads the advisory group supporting WHO to elaborate a strategy to support private sector engagement, reflecting back on the cases presented during the panel discussion, conveying the key message to the academic community.
Objective: To establish a link between practical experiences and the broader policy work conducted at the global level to create a conducive environment for private sector engagement.
Key message. WHO should be doing more to influence the research agenda on private sector engagement. From policy to practice we need to consider documenting how to efficiently operationalize coherent approaches to private sector engagement in practice is critically needed.
Q & A from the participants
Closing remarks
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