Rapidly Attaining Global Health Mandates in Africa : A Case for Innovative Private Partnership Approaches with International Agencies

The extent of premature death and ill health in the developing world is staggering. Death and ill health on such a scale are matters of concern in their own right. They also foster a brake on economic development. It was these twin concerns that led the international community to put health firmly at the center of the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) when adopting them a the Millennium Summit in September 2000.The Governments, Agencies, multilateral and bilateral institutions have attempted to operationalise the interventions through their own existing machineries. However these machineries may not be the best approach to deliver on the promise, because of efficiency, sustainability and agility issues. In some situations intervention effectiveness even becomes an issue as well.Alternative models must be considered against allocative efficiency in the light of the current economic climate and attendant scarcity of resources.The emergent nature of the challenges facing health globally, especially in developing countries calls for committed and renewed focus on what works on-the-ground without prejudice to our existing paradigms of international cooperation and policy implementation. The need for closer, more direct partnership and cooperation with the private sector in health has in recent times been variously identified.In Africa, the private sector in most countries already plays a leading role in the provision and financing of healthcare especially for the poor. Against the background of this Financing and Provision structure, it is important to involve the private sector in the effort to fast-track the attainment of the global mandates like MDGs. One of the goals of a health system is financial protection from exposure to ill-health. Risk protection is important for the poor and disadvantaged. A key premise in this paper is that it is important to continually look for innovative approaches to stimulating the demand for risk protection by the poor.Community Based Health Financing arrangements can provide the vehicle for pooling resourcesand purchasing services from providers on behalf of the poor