Advancing Public-Private Dialogue and Healthcare Partnerships in India

This programme introduces a number of initiatives to enhance the interaction between public and private health actors in India to strengthen opportunities for productive relationships and long-term collaboration.

As many governments explore means to improve the coverage of healthcare services, the role of the private sector in the healthcare system is gaining more attention. Many low and middle-income countries have already had various forms of contractual arrangements between the government and private organizations in healthcare and many of these have been documented. Some of the commonly stated benefits of these formal Public Private Partnerships are improved efficiency in service delivery and improved access to services for poor populations.

Private organizations have also been contracted when the government sought new solutions and recognized challenges in its own ability to innovate. Common benefits to the private sector have been economies of scale, lowering the cost of inputs for the services not contracted by the government and potential reputational gains after partnering with the government.

While many public private partnerships have been documented and some of the broader benefits recognized, there remains limited information in the Indian context about the factors supporting effective public-private dialogue more broadly, the performance of PPPs, the private party’s ability to provide the services/products as per the contract and the governments’ ability meet its responsibilities under the contract. This knowledge will be critical in ensuring that the growing recognition of private health providers as crucial stakeholders in delivering health services can be leveraged to create productive and effective partnerships between the public and the private sector.

These include:

An information repository of work around the identification, designand management of PPPs and the factors influencing successful public-private collaboration more broadly within the Indian context. This material will be used for capacity building as contextual case learning alongside similar training material being developed and piloted by the International Financial Corporation, UK Department for International Development and the World Bank Institute through HANSHEP.

A neutral platform to facilitate online (continuous) and physical(biannual) engagement of state governments and private organizations. The aim of the platform will be to promote collaborative assessment of the opportunities for partnerships and advance the dialogue between parties for improved performance of existing partnerships, as well as to explore new areas for effective partnerships.

Capacity building to strengthen the technical and executive capacity of the Government and the private sector stakeholders to efficiently engage and manage PPPs.

Timeline: Jan-Dec 2014

Implementing Partner: ACCESS Health International

This programme has been enabled by a World Bank DGF grant awarded to HANSHEP in 2014.