With most countries in sub-Saharan Africa still struggling to provide affordable healthcare, it is becoming increasingly evident that traditional health provision models are no longer tenable.
Available data shows that 29.98 per cent of healthcare expenditure across sub-Saharan Africa is financed through out-of-pocket payments.
This is worrying considering that the number of people living below the poverty line of $1.9 increased to 424 million in 2019 from 420 million in 2018, accounting for 38.5 per cent of the region’s population.
The region accounts for two-thirds of the world’s extremely poor.
There is, therefore, an urgent need to accelerate healthcare affordability through innovative service delivery approaches.
A viable alternative is co-creating fit-for-purpose solutions to drive affordability and access to medicine and healthcare by those at the bottom of the pyramid.
This can establish a foundation for innovative solutions that would facilitate the realisation of universal health coverage (UHC).
Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are an innovative way to include the private sector in health systems strengthening and sustainability over time.
They enable governments to collaborate with the private sector in pooling resources, combining the managerial and technical skills of both to improve healthcare delivery.
They have the potential to make UHC possible by bridging gaps in healthcare access and affordability.
PPPs create environments for innovation and technology which can spur growth and provide easy access not only to information but also to health services.
PPP approach models such as those that centre around the effective last-mile distribution of medicines and commodities, may be worth emulating.
If similar models are implemented in collaboration at a national scale, the realisation of UHC and access to affordable healthcare will be within reach.
However, this can only be achieved if some of the systemic challenges in the sector are dealt with.
The health sector in the region is plagued by a myriad of challenges with the main one being poor funding.
None of the East African countries, for example, have achieved commitments made in the Abuja Declaration to allocate 15 per cent of the national budget to health.
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