Unlocking the Power of the Private Sector to Transform Health Systems
The GFF works with partner countries to identify the most effective ways to strengthen health systems to deliver services for women, children and adolescents. For many GFF partner countries, the private sector offers the reach, resources and ingenuity needed to accelerate progress to improve health outcomes. In addition to delivering services and financing health initiatives, the private sector also participates in supply chain logistics, manufacturing of medical equipment and commodities, telecommunication systems, and others.
As a key part of the GFF model since its inception, the private sector is represented on the GFF Investors Group and actively participates in country platforms. The GFF also leverages technical partnerships with private global partners such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck for Mothers, Laerdal Global Health and the Rockefeller Foundation to support country-specific programs.
The GFF is facilitating greater public-private collaboration to build understanding, trust and the enabling environment which will enable the private sector to complement the public sector to scale up delivery of affordable, quality health services and commodities. For example:
Cameroon: Using Innovative Financing to Mobilize Private Sector Resources
The groundbreaking Development Impact Bond that sought to save the lives of at least 2,200 infants each year by expanding the use of skin-to-skin contact after birth is delivering results. Since 2019, three times as many infants (39%) received at least eight hours of skin-to-skin contact and 78 percent of newborns who received KMC reached an appropriate weight by their 40-week follow-up appointment.
Investing in Data to Inform Policy and Partnerships
The GFF focused significant financing and technical assistance to help countries such as Bangladesh, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Ethiopia, Myanmar, and Uganda to conduct assessments that inform policy reforms and partnership opportunities. For example, in Mozambique, market assessments focused on specific private sector investments, such as outsourcing last-mile distribution of the supply chain.
Partnerships with Global Actors to Scale up Innovations at Country Level
In 2019, the GFF joined Laerdal Global Health and the Government of Norway to launch a US$25 million “Innovation to Scale” challenge as part of its Innovations Partnership. This partnership has recently expanded with new commitments of US$5 million from Merck for Mothers and US$2.5 million from the Rockefeller Foundation to enable countries such as Mali, Myanmar, Rwanda and Tanzania to invest in scalable and sustainable innovations to transform primary healthcare systems for women, children and adolescents.
