Engaging the private sector in public health challenges in Namibia

Engaging the private sector in healthcare is a central theme in the work of PharmAccess Foundation, a Dutch not-for-profit organization, based in Amsterdam, with offices in several African countries, including Namibia. This thesis describes interventions developed and applied in Namibia to engage its private sector to leverage private resources for public health. Interventions and subsequent evaluations are presented according to the PharmAccess model of transitioning the vicious circle of poor healthcare in Africa into a virtuous cycle of sustainable healthcare stimulating both demand and supply, while recognizing the key stakeholders of healthcare systems as the patient, provider and payer, all functioning in a policy environment that sets the rules of interaction and exchange.
The studies presented in this thesis evaluate the PharmAccess four strategies of engaging the private sector in the public healthcare challenges in Namibia: to stimulate demand by improving health awareness of the patient; to stimulate supply by developing innovative new healthcare service provision; to innovate new payer mechanisms using subsidization; to collect and present evidence to support policy-making.
Interventions at all levels of the healthcare system are recommended. The ultimate goal is to provide the right diagnosis, at the right time, for the right patient at the right cost within the right regulatory framework, with both public and private sector contributing a complementary role. The stakeholders in the healthcare system cannot function in isolation, and this thesis demonstrates that interventions aimed at stimulating one stakeholder have an effect either directly or indirectly on the others.