Partnership with private for-profit sector for universal health coverage in sub-Saharan Africa: opportunities and caveats

Abstract

### Summary box Sustainable Development Goal 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”, with an ambitious target of attaining universal health coverage (UHC), is the aspiration of almost all countries. UHC is defined as access for the whole population to good-quality health services without the risk of financial hardship.1 Unfortunately, the public sector in most sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries lacks the capacity to provide this range of services to the whole population. Emphasis has been on strengthening the public health sector despite the resource limitations. The private sector is a potential resource for covering the gaps the public sector is unable to fill and this implores us to explore options for meaningful partnerships. The objective of this commentary is to explore the opportunities, caveats and the potential for partnership with the PFP to achieve UHC in the context of low-income countries (LICs). The private sector comprises private for-profit (PFP) and private not-for-profit (PNFP). In this commentary, we focus only on the PFP sector. We acknowledge the broad scope of PFP activities in health however, in this commentary, we focus only on partnerships with the PFP providers for the delivery of health services. The private sector is taken …