Publication:
Improving Emerging Markets Healthcare through Private Provision

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (953.74 KB)
259 downloads
English Text (36.5 KB)
20 downloads
Published
2017-02
ISSN
Date
2018-09-06
Editor(s)
Abstract
The role of private enterprise in healthcare is to complement and support improvements to public healthcare, not to supplant it. Private providers are the primary source of care for the world’s poorest people and their record is often as good as or better than that of public providers. As low and middle-income economies grow and resources become more widely available, competition and consumer choice offer substantial potential to improve the reach, quality, and efficiency of both private and public provision.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Walton, Tom; Matthees, Kevin. 2017. Improving Emerging Markets Healthcare through Private Provision. EMCompass,no. 31;. © International Finance Corporation. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30358 License: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO.
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
  • Publication
    Financing Deep Tech
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10) Nedayvoda, Anastasia; Delavelle, Fannie; So, Hoi Ying; Graf, Lana; Taupin, Louise
    Deep tech companies - those built on advances in biotechnology, robotics, electronics, artificial intelligence, and other advanced technologies—aim to solve complex social and environmental challenges. Today the majority of deep tech companies are being launched in developed countries, yet the solutions they can provide are applicable globally. Many of these solutions are especially critical to emerging markets, as the intractable challenges of climate, health, and connectivity, among other issues, disproportionately affect these nations. Addressing these challenges is a strategic priority for development finance institutions and governments worldwide, so financing deep tech companies and boosting deep tech ecosystems in order to deliver new solutions globally is a pressing matter. Doing so, however, requires substantial capital and carries a higher degree of risk than ordinary venture investments. This note examines the process of financing a deep tech company, including the benefits and drawbacks of currently available types of financing, and suggests examples of promising but not yet widespread alternatives.
  • Publication
    Banking on FinTech in Emerging Markets
    (International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2022-01) Rose Innes, Cleo; Andrieu, Jacqueline
    Despite near-universal access to financial services in advanced economies, financial exclusion is stubbornly persistent in many emerging markets, leaving huge swaths of low-income populations unbanked or underbanked. FinTech companies, which apply innovative technologies to deliver such services in new ways, have begun to tap into the enormous unmet demand that this represents. These companies are starting to thrive in emerging markets, though regulatory issues, particularly weak consumer protection measures, remain to be resolved in many countries. If these can be overcome, and more progress toward universal access to digital infrastructure can be made, FinTechs will continue to scale and spread.
  • Publication
    Sustainability-Linked Finance
    (International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2022-01) de la Orden, Raquel; de Calonje, Ignacio
    Sustainability-linked finance is designed to incentivize the borrower’s achievement of environmental, social, or governance targets through pricing incentives. Launched in 2017, it has now become the fastest-growing sustainable finance instrument, with over $809 billion issued to date in sustainability-linked loans and bonds. Yet these instruments are still nascent in emerging markets, which represent only 5 percent of total issuance to date. This note shares examples of recent sustainability-linked financing, including several involving IFC in various roles, to highlight how investors can utilize these new instruments in emerging markets and mitigate greenwashing risks
  • Publication
    Creating Housing Markets in Emerging Market Economies
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10) Innes, Cleo Rose; Casabianca, Brian
    At the beginning of the 20th century less than 15 percent of people across the globe lived in cities. This figure has risen to 50 percent (4.4 billion people) today and will exceed 66 percent (7.7 billion) by 2050. There is a significant shortfall of housing to meet the needs of people moving to cities, most of whom have limited resources but strong hopes for better educational and employment opportunities. Direct public provision of housing is not affordable for most national governments, so more than 1.6 billion people will struggle to secure housing by 2025. Addressing this under-provision of housing will require connecting capital with low-income urbanizing populations, including solutions to make the private sector more responsive to the investment opportunities that urbanization presents.
  • Publication
    Municipal Broadband Networks
    (International Finance Corporation, Washington, DC, 2021-11) Houngbonon, Georges V.; Rossotto, Carlo M.; Strusani, Davide
    The accelerated use of digital services during the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of high-speed Internet access. Yet a large share of adults in emerging markets still live in cities where the availability of high-speed Internet is limited. There is a strong case to be made for municipal broadband networks, which are fully or partially facilitated, built, operated, or financed by local governments, often in partnership with the private sector. There are three basic models for creating and operating these networks, and every network must work in the unique context of the city it will serve. But if they are well implemented, these models can offer digital access to city residents, help close the digital divide, and create opportunities for private sector players in both advanced and emerging markets.
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Healthy Partnerships : How Governments Can Engage the Private Sector to Improve Health in Africa
    (World Bank, 2011) International Finance Corporation
    Health systems across Africa are in urgent need of improvement. The public sector should not be expected to shoulder the burden of directly providing the needed services alone, nor can it, given the current realities of African health systems. Therefore to achieve necessary improvements, governments will need to rely more heavily on the private health sector. Indeed, private providers already play a significant role in the health sector in Africa and are expected to continue to play a key role, and private providers serve all income levels across sub- Saharan Africa's health systems. The World Health Organization (WHO) and others have identified improvements in the way governments interact with and make use of their private health sectors as one of the key ingredients to health systems improvements. Across the African region, many ministries of health are actively seeking to increase the contributions of the private health sector. However, relatively little is known about the details of engagement; that is, the roles and responsibilities of the players, and what works and what does not. A better understanding of the ways that governments and the private health sector work together and can work together more effectively is needed. This Report assesses and compares the ways in which African governments are engaging with their private health sectors. Engagement is defined, for the purposes of this report, to mean the deliberate, systematic collaboration of the government and the private health sector according to national health priorities, beyond individual interventions and programs. With effective engagement, one of the main constraints to better private sector contributions can be addressed, which in turn should improve the performance of health systems overall.
  • Publication
    Chronic Emergency : Why NCDs Matter
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-07) Nikolic, Irina A.; Stanciole, Anderson E.; Zaydman, Mikhail
    'Chronic emergency: why non communicable diseases (NCDs) Matter' examines the magnitude of the challenge posed by NCDs in middle- and low-income countries, and makes the case for elevating the challenge as a priority item to address on the agenda of decision-makers. NCDs are on the rise in all middle- and low-income country regions. By 2030, NCDs are expected to account for three quarters of the disease burden in middle-income countries, up from two-thirds today and approaching the level of high-income countries. In low income countries, the NCD share of the disease burden will increase even more quickly and will approach the levels currently found in middle-income countries. At the same time, many low-income countries will continue to contend with substantial communicable disease burdens, thus facing a double burden of disease. Further, compared to their higher-income counterparts, many developing countries will face elevated NCD levels at earlier stages of economic development and with a much compressed timeline to address the challenge. The overall economic and social cost of NCDs vastly exceeds their direct medical costs. NCDs affect economies, health systems, and households and individuals through a range of drivers such as reduced labor productivity, higher medical treatment costs, and lost savings. These drivers aggregate into significant socioeconomic impacts, including in the areas of: country productivity and competitiveness; fiscal pressures; health outcomes; and poverty, inequity and opportunity loss. Despite the magnitude of the NCD challenge, there is considerable space for action. While most countries will not be able to treat their way out of the NCD challenge because of the immense costs such a strategy requires, they can target NCD risk factors and promote healthier lifestyles through focused prevention efforts while also facilitating strategic adaptation measures to mitigate the impact of NCDs on economies, health systems, and households and individuals.
  • Publication
    Jamaica’s Effort in Improving Universal Access within Fiscal Constraints
    (World Bank, Washington DC, 2013-01) Chao, Shiyan
    Jamaica's primary health care system was a model for the Caribbean region in the 1990s. Because of it, Jamaicans enjoy relatively better health status than people in other countries of similar income level in the Caribbean region. However, Jamaica's health system is being severely challenged by persistent and reemerging infectious diseases and by the rapid increase in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and injuries. At the same time, the country has suffered from low economic growth and carries a high debt burden, which leaves limited fiscal space for improving health care. The Government of Jamaica has been trying to sustain the gain in health outcomes and improve access to health care for its population in an environment of constrained resources during the last decade. With the establishment of the Jamaica National Health Fund (NHF) in 2003 and the abolition of user fees at public facilities in 2008, the Government of Jamaica has taken steps toward achieving universal coverage. This study reviews the achievements and challenges in expanding universal access in Jamaica and assesses the impact of the NHF's drug-subsidy programs and the abolition of user fees on universal access, and discusses policy options for achieving universal coverage.
  • Publication
    Expanding Health Coverage for Vulnerable Groups in India
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-01) Nagpal, Somil
    India's health sector continues to be challenged by overall low levels of public financing, entrenched accountability issues in the public delivery system, and the persistent dominance of out-of-pocket spending. In this context, this case study describes three recent initiatives introduced by the central and state governments in India, aimed at addressing some of these challenges and improving the availability of and access to health services, particularly for the poor and vulnerable groups in the country. This includes two federal schemes introduced by the Government of India-the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-and the Rajiv Aarogyasri scheme launched by the state government of Andhra Pradesh. The three schemes discussed in this case study were designed and implemented by different agencies almost in parallel, over the same time period, and used different financing and delivery approaches. A discussion of the mechanics and operational features of these programs has been undertaken to unravel the underlying complexities, interactions, and interdependencies of these programs within the country's health system. The remainder of this case study on India's march toward universal health coverage focuses on three recent, prominent programs, and includes a discussion on the institutional structure of these programs and their interactions within the country's health system, their mechanisms for beneficiary targeting and enrolment, the benefits packages covered by them, accompanying innovations in public financial management, and their information environment. Annex one presents an overview of the health system and health financing in India, and annex two discusses the evolutionary context of India's Government sponsored health insurance schemes. The discussion of the mechanics and operational features of these programs has been undertaken to unravel the underlying complexities, interactions, and interdependencies within these programs. The case study also aims to contribute to the ongoing debate within the Indian health sector, with opinions divided between investments in traditional input-based health spending for publicly managed health facilities versus demand-side financing, purchasing of care, and involving private providers and intermediaries in delivering services financed by public money. The case study also aims to share how the lessons learned by one program can be applicable more widely within the Indian health system and beyond
  • Publication
    Private Voluntary Health Insurance in Development : Friend or Foe?
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Preker, Alexander S.; Sheffler, Richard M.; Preker, Alexander S.; Preker, Alexander S.; Sheffler, Richard M.; Bassett, Mark C.
    This volume presents findings of a World Bank review of the existing and potential role of private voluntary health insurance in low- and middle-income countries and is the third volume in a series of reviews of health care financing. Also, this volume is about managing risk. Not the risk of national or man-made disasters but the risk of illness. The developing world is plagued by many of the historical scourges of poverty: infectious disease, disability, and premature death. As countries pass through demographic and epidemiological transition, they face a new wave of health challenges from chronic diseases and accidents. In this respect, illness has both a predictable and an unpredictable dimension. Contributors to this volume emphasize that the public sector has an important role to play in the health sector, but they demonstrate that the private sector also plays a role in a context in which private spending and delivery of health services often composes 80 percent of total health expenditure. Managing risks in the private sector begins at the household level. Private voluntary health insurance is merely an extension of such nongovernmental ways to deal with the risk of illness and its impoverishing effects in low- and middle-income countries. The authors examine frameworks for analyzing health financing and health insurance. They conclude that most studies are hampered by lack of data on the impact of private voluntary health insurance on broad social goals, such as financial protection. They find no overall consensus on the impact of voluntary health insurance on public health activities or on the quality, innovation, and efficiency of personal health services.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Ukraine Country Environmental Analysis
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-01) World Bank
    The objective of the Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to assess the adequacy and performance of the policy, legal, and institutional framework for environmental management in Ukraine, in light of the decentralization process of environmental governance and wider reform objectives, and to provide recommendations to government to address the key gaps identified. Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe and has a population of 43 million, the majority of whom live in urban areas. It is a lower middle income country, with the services, industry and agriculture sectors being main contributors to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ukraine faces a number of environmental challenges, as identified in its National Environmental Strategy 2020 (NES). Key among these are: air pollution; quality of water resources and land degradation; solid waste management; biodiversity loss; human health issues associated with environmental risk factors; in addition to climate change. The scope of Ukrainian environmental legislation is quite broad and comprehensive (more than 300 legal acts) and covers most areas of environmental protection and natural resources management. However, the environmental legislation faces a number of weaknesses:The environmental legislation is largely declaratory in nature and does not have all the essential enforcement mechanisms for the implementation of legal acts and international agreements; Many of the acts are not coordinated with each other; and Legislation undergoes limited analysis of its impact—for example, no in-depth analysis such as Regulatory Impact Analysis is conducted for proposed pieces of legislation.
  • Publication
    Regional Poverty and Inequality Update: Latin America and the Caribbean, October 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-23) World Bank
    This brief summarizes recent facts related to poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) using the latest wave of harmonized household surveys from the Socio-Economic Database for LAC (SEDLAC). This brief was produced by the Poverty Global Practice in the LAC Region of the World Bank.
  • Publication
    Thailand Monthly Economic Monitor, October 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-22) World Bank
    Fiscal conditions remained stable, with a modest widening of the deficit to 3.1 percent of GDP. New stimulus measures are expected to support short-term demand without breaching the public debt ceiling. Inflation stayed negative, reflecting lower energy and food prices amid subdued domestic demand. The central bank kept the policy rate unchanged, citing limited policy space. Thailand’s growth momentum has slowed further as manufacturing activity and services weakened as projected. Tourism remained subdued, largely due to fewer Chinese visitors. Goods exports also slowed as earlier front-loaded orders faded, particularly in agriculture and industrial goods. The Thai baht depreciated in early October as the US dollar appreciated and the current account turned negative.
  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    Housing Subsidies for Refugees
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-22) Tamim, Abdulrazzak; Smith, Emma; Palmer, I. Bailey; Miguel, Edward; Leone, Samuel; Rozo, Sandra V.; Stillman, Sarah
    Refugees require assistance for basic needs like housing but local host communities may feel excluded from that assistance, potentially affecting community relations. This study experimentally evaluates the effect of a housing assistance program for Syrian refugees in Jordan on both the recipients and their neighbors. The program offered full rental subsidies and landlord incentives for housing improvements, but saw only moderate uptake, in part due to landlord reluctance. The program improved short-run housing quality and lowered housing expenditures, but did not yield sustained economic benefits, partly due to redistribution of aid. The program unexpectedly led to a deterioration in child socio-emotional well-being, and also strained relations between Jordanian neighbors and refugees. In all, housing subsidies had limited measurable benefits for refugee well-being while worsening social cohesion, highlighting the possible need for alternative forms of aid.