Country learnings

From 2020-2021, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Save the Children, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and USAID conducted a situational analysis to explore mechanisms for private health sector engagement to improve maternal and newborn outcomes in Bangladesh. This work is ongoing.

Resources & publications

Guide for policy dialogue

The Network Secretariat has prepared policy dialogue guidance to assist countries in planning, organizing, and facilitating multi-stakeholder policy dialogues on private sector delivery of quality maternal and newborn health services. The policy dialogue guide provides a recommended approach for conducting multi-stakeholder policy dialogues but is not intended to be prescriptive, as the processes should be adapted to suit the needs of the country where it is being used.

Policy dialogue process

  • Prepare for the policy dialogue

    Once the Ministry of Health decides to take part in a policy dialogue, it is important to identify a senior strategic lead and establish a national technical working group that will be responsible for the whole process. Plan for the policy dialogue process, including the situational analysis and multi-stakeholder workshop. Adapt the situational analysis research protocol and interview guides to the country context.

    Policy dialogue guide Research protocol Interview guides
  • Convene the multi-stakeholder workshop

    Review and validate the situational analysis report with participants. Identify key challenges and actionable issues. Develop recommendations that address the key challenges and actionable issues. Then propose models and a plan for implementing the recommendations.

    Workshop report template
  • Report outcomes of the policy dialogue

    Finally, disseminate the outcomes of the policy dialogue, including the recommendations from the multi-stakeholder dialogue workshop. Implement and monitor the plan and recommendations.

    Case study template

Partnerships

On 7 December 2021, partners launched  the MNCH  Working Group as part of the Country Connector on Private Sector in Health. The MNCH Working Group focuses on engaging the private sector for delivering quality maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) services. Its goal is to support countries to engage the private sector in delivering  quality MNCH services to accelerate progress to reach Sustainable Development Goals for ending preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths.

The WHO Health Systems Governance and Financing Department works to strengthen the stewardship capacity of governments to manage mixed health systems (systems made up of public and private providers). To do this, the Department helps countries to establish public policy about the means and strategies of engaging, managing, and regulating the private sector in health care service delivery. The objective of the work is to support country efforts to increase equitable access to health services, improve quality, address the risk of financial hardship, and improve accountability. For more information, view the Department's resources on private sector engagement or visit the Health Systems Governance Collaborative's private sector engagement webpage.