Trans Africa Group of Companies has successfully opened its offices in Washington D.C.
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February 23, 2008
February 13, 2008
Shot in Arm for Private Health Promoted by World Bank
Shot in Arm for Private Health
The East African (Nairobi)
NEWS
28 January 2008
Posted to the web 28 January 2008
By Francis Ayieko
THE WORLD BANK AND ITS Partners are to mobilise up to $1 billion over the next five years to strengthen the private healthcare sector in Africa.
The move is part of the Bank’s new strategy for addressing Africa’s health challenges and recognises the continent’s private sector as a key player in alleviating health problems.
The African Development Bank has declared its support for the initiative and agreed to collaborate with the World Bank in establishing the equity investment vehicle to help realise the goal.
According to a new report from IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, sub-Saharan Africa needs between $25 billion and $30 billion to meet healthcare spending, which is expected to double over the next 10 years.
Entitled, The Business of Health in Africa: Partnering with the Private Sector to Improve People’s Lives, the report says the private sector already plays a significant role in delivering and financing healthcare for the region’s people. On average, the private sector delivers 50 per cent of healthcare goods and services.
The report is the product of a study jointly funded by IFC and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to study the role and impact of Africa’s private health sector. The $1 billion will be used for investment and advisory services geared at boosting “socially responsible healthcare,” according to the report.
“This is a chance to increase access to healthcare for millions of Africans,” says Lars Thunell, IFC chief executive. “If we can get all the critical players – governments, donors, investors and providers – to leverage the private health sector and integrate it effectively with public systems, we can also greatly improve the quality of care.”
NOTING THAT THE PRIVATE Sector already provides about half of healthcare goods and services in the region, Mr Thunell adds, “A poor woman in Africa today is as likely to take her sick child to a private hospital or clinic as to a public facility.”
It is estimated that Africa’s healthcare expenditure is likely to reach $35 billion by 2016, up from $17 billion in 2005. The report says that people in sub-Saharan Africa have the worst healthcare on average in the world. The region, according to the report, has 11 per cent of the world’s population but carries 24 per cent of the global disease burden.
With less than one per cent of global health expenditure and only three per cent of the world’s health workers, Africa accounts for almost half of the world’s deaths of children under five, has the highest maternal mortality rate, and bears a heavy toll of HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
The IFC report is said to be the most comprehensive analysis to date of the private health sector in sub-Saharan Africa.
IFC’s new funding strategy has been hailed as reflecting important first steps to act on the report’s findings. A more encouraging aspect about the IFC project is that the African Development Bank was one of the first development financial institutions that supported the initiative and agreed to collaborate with the World Bank.
