Stakeholders join forces to strengthen the Malagasy private health sector
A diverse group of stakeholders joined forces in Antananarivo on January 25 to improve private sector engagement in health. This meeting built momentum towards a more effective collaboration between public and private health actors in the country.
The Secretary General of the Madagascar Ministry of Public Health, Josea Ratsirarson, opened the stakeholder meeting with remarks emphasizing the ministry’s readiness to partner with the private health sector to improve health services and products nationwide.
Facilitated by SHOPS Plus, the workshop built on the findings from the SHOPS Plus private health sector assessment in Madagascar. The assessment, which was completed in 2017, estimated the size, scope, and scale of the private health sector, including services, products, and policies. To fulfill SHOPS Plus’ commitment to validate the findings with local stakeholders and collaboratively develop a roadmap to operationalize the recommendations, the project brought together nearly 70 participants representing the private health sector, donors, implementing partners, professional associations, and local government.
SHOPS Plus presented a summary of the findings to the participants and used the day to solicit feedback. Through open dialogue and extensive plenary and small group discourse, the stakeholders made revisions to the assessment and validated the results in a collaborative manner. Stakeholders also identified priority recommendations for service provision, health financing, access to finance, and policy initiatives.
Recommendations included:
- Creating a federation of associations of medical professionals to discuss quality protocols and strengthen synergies among providers
- Developing and promoting partnerships between insurance providers and microfinance institutions, banks, mobile network operators, and other key service providers to improve financing mechanisms for health
- Providing technical assistance to financial institutions to stimulate the offer of loans to private health providers
- Involving the private sector in policy development and the strategic planning process
SHOPS Plus is supporting implementation of some of these key recommendations and will disseminate the final report and roadmap to stakeholders. The project will also continue to support activities to reinforce the enabling environment for private sector participation and partnership in Madagascar.