Strategies for Private Sector Engagement and Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Health

Background
Important changes have occurred in Asian countries and these changes involve not only changes in the landscape of the health sector but also increased challenges in strengthening health systems. In many countries in Asia, the private sector as a key resource and player in addressing health sector concerns has become increasingly important.Not only in Asia but around the world, the public sector has successfully engaged the private sector in addressing health system concerns. A multiplicity of health challenges, coupled with resource constraints, make it imperative for professionals in the public sector to learn how to successfully engage the private sector in order to achieve health sector goals.

This course builds on existing approaches in strategies for private sector engagement and public private partnerships in health and aims at providing participants with analytical and policy-making tools that would better enable them to engage the private sector. It will provide participants with a framework both for analyzing the opportunities for engaging the private sector in a health system as well as for designing strategies and approaches for engaging the private sector to achieve national health system goals.

This year, a new module on private sector engagement in the hospital sector has been added; topics covered in this module include: contracting and purchasing, hospital PPP management and implementation, and capacity planning. Thus, in order to allow for broader discussion of the pertinent issues in PPPs, we will offer participants two tracks to choose from,
hospitals and primary care. The course is designed as a regional course and as such draws heavily on Asian experiences in order to provide a practical and realistic perspective.

Goal
The goal of the course is to provide participants with an understanding of when and how to use the different available strategies and policy instruments for engaging the private health sector in attaining health system goals, particularly in the Asia region, the focus being on hospital and primary care.

Objectives

By the end of the course, participants are expected to:

Understand how to conduct a private health sector assessment in order to develop strategies for engaging the private sector in attaining health goals, the focus being on primary care and hospitals
Understand when and how to use key tools such as regulation, contracting, vouchers and quality assurance/ accreditation for engaging the private sector
Understand what is involved in using each of the policy tools to be covered, including implementation and monitoring challenges
Gain understanding about how to draft, implement, monitor and evaluate a sound contract that underlies the partnership
Be able to apply the knowledge learned in order to identify opportunities for private sector engagement and PPPs in hospital and primary care in their respective coun tries
and develop action plans for engaging the private sector in order to better achieve specifi c health system goals.

Participants

The primary target audiences for this course are:
Senior and midlevel policy makers at national and sub-national level
Health policy implementers
Health sector managers working with the private sector, and
Regulators

The following might also fi nd this course useful:

Heads/Directors of Private health care organization associations
Hospital managers
Faculties and researchers in health policy
International organizations/donors representatives.

Course Content

A framework to think systematically about publicprivate collaboration in hospital and primary care
Assessment of the private health sector within the larger health system and reform agenda
Mechanisms to improve the chances of achieving national health goals through partnership with the private sector
Case studies to provide a better understanding of private sector engagement in the health system

Team of Trainers and Resource Persons

World Bank Institute, Washington DC, USA
Peter Berman, April Harding, Jack Langenbrunner, Tazim Mawji and Rui Sousa Monteiro
Dominic Montagu, University of California, San Francisco, USA
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
Siripen Supakankunti, Jiruth Sriratanaban, Chanetwallop Nicholas Kumthong and Chantal Herberholz
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Laksono Trisnantoro and Shita Dewi
Asian Institute of Management, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Maria Elena B. Herrera and Francisco Roman
Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan
Syed Farid-Ul-Hasnain
BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Malabika Sarker
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR,
People’s Republic of China
William Ho and EK Yeoh
Other resource persons from other ANHSS members

Approach and Methodology
This week long program combines a series of lectures, hands-on case studies, team assignments, group discussions and one fi eld visit. Training materials will feature readings covering key concepts and techniques, case studies, and in-depth background readings. The course will provide the participant an opportunity to develop action plans for engaging the private sector and applying PPP concepts and tools in the areas of hospital and primary care.