Public-Private Partnerships

Since the early 1980s, Futures Group has played a major role in private sector approaches to family planning, reproductive health, maternal and child health, and infectious diseases, such as HIV and AIDS around the world.

We have played this role primarily through successful public-private partnerships and integrated social marketing programs under the auspices of USAID, KfW, World Bank, national governments, and DFID. To meet important public health objectives, Futures Group’s strategy is centered on our “Total Market” approach, which mobilizes

The resources and competitiveness of the commercial sector
The social focus of the nonprofit sector, and
The policies and mandates of the public sector.

Partnerships with the public sector are critical. Private sector engagement maximizes finite public and donor resources by serving those who can afford to pay, while redirecting subsidies to those who truly need them.

Key Results

The USAID-funded Innovations in Family Planning Services II Technical Assistance Project (ITAP) has used sustained information-based advocacy efforts to overcome resistance to public-private partnerships. This was done through a series of workshops based on information collected on various public-private partnership models in the health sector. ITAP established linkages between the public and private sectors, and mapped total resources available in both sectors. In consultation with the state governments and private partners, ITAP identified suitable models for three states that are now being implemented. These models included social marketing, social franchising, contracting out public health facilities to the private sector, demand-side financing through a voucher system, clinic-based non-governmental organization projects, and mobile health vans.

Under the Communication for Behavior Change: Expanding Access to Private Sector Health Products and Services in Afghanistan (COMPRI-A) Project, Futures Group created the first formal private-public sector committee and office within the Ministry of Public Health that addresses private sector involvement with public health issues, both legal and regulatory. In addition, the Futures Group team guided the development of a national private sector policy supporting the provision of health care by private practitioners and health facilities.