Engaging the private health sector for Universal Health Coverage

As the UHC2030 Private Sector Constituency will confirm, the private sector has a prominent role to play in health service delivery and achieving universal health coverage.

Its statement on Private sector contributions towards universal health coverage launched ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting on UHC in September 2019 outlines seven ways the private sector contributes to UHC and the role that governments and other stakeholders can play in creating an enabling environment for effective private sector engagement.

One of these critical factors is the importance of clear processes for structured and meaningful engagement of all partners to move together on UHC.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has the potential to play a pivotal role in supporting UHC through private health sector service delivery governance given its focus on health and equity. A resolution to engage the private sector in providing essential health services was adopted in the 63rd World Health Assembly (WHA). Since then, WHO has made progress towards recognizing and engaging the private health sector, but a more system wide shift is necessary to catalyze action to reach UHC.

WHO is now asking for your opinion on a draft roadmap that supports a new way of doing business for health system governance. This is an important piece of work to strengthen the enabling environment that is needed for private sector to contribute effectively to UHC.

The proposed roadmap outlines six governance behaviours critical to private sector delivery governance.

• Build understanding - Collection and analysis of data to align priorities for action.
• Deliver strategy - Agreed sense of direction and articulation of roles & responsibilities.
• Enable stakeholders - Institutional framework that empowers the actors.
• Foster relations - Working together to achieve shared objectives in a new way of doing business.
• Align structures - Organizational structures to align with policy objectives.
• Nurture trust - Mutual trust amongst all actors as accountable participants

The draft roadmap aims to serve as a guide for WHO’s member states at various levels of engagement with the private sector and promote a new way of doing business for both WHO internally and the member states.  Following the publication of this roadmap, WHO will evaluate different approaches to support this new vision and the implementation of the roadmap.

All interested parties are invited to answer the following survey to provide feedbacks to the draft roadmap. New deadline - the survey is now open until 30 June 2020. The collected answers will be used to adjust and finalize the roadmap. 

UHC2030 Private Sector Constituency

The UHC2030 Private Sector Constituency convenes private sector actors to foster dialogue and collaboration for UHC both within the constituency itself and with all UHC2030’s partners and health systems networks.

In September 2019, the UHC2030 Private Sector Constituency launched its statement on UHC, highlighting how the private sector can work together with other stakeholders to achieve better health and well-being for all people at all ages.

UHC2030 Private Sector Constituency Statement on UHC