Study, Panel Stimulate Thinking About Public-Private Partnerships

A new study released this week in Geneva provides insights into public-private partnerships (PPPs) with a special focus on China and India, while a panel of health experts discussing the report highlighted the importance of such partnerships.

The study, Mapping Public Private Partnerships across Countries, was conducted by The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Public-Private Partnerships Initiative with support from the Lilly Foundation. The SAIS team was led by Prof. Alan M. Trager, who presented the report at the event, which was hosted by the Stop TB Partnership and Lilly Global Health Programs.

The panel was moderated by Ilona Kickbusch, head of the Graduate Institute in Geneva Global Health Programme. Panellists included: Amb. Tania Dussey-Cavassini of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health; Mukund Uplekar of the World Health Organization; Tang Kun of Peking University; Suvanand Sahu, head of the Stop TB Partnership; and Maria Paola Lia of the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership.

Trager, who referred repeatedly to his vast experience in these matters, likened the social benefits of PPPs to the civic improvement of a park in central Manhattan, which he said led to billions of dollars of real estate value going into private hands. A question raised was how some of that might be put back into additional public benefit. He declined to share the slides of his presentation afterward.

Kickbusch said investing in healthcare boosts economies in many ways, such as increasing employment for women, raising household income, and sending girls to school. She said she was excited about the ability to talk about PPPs as a governance issue, and said a global public goods approach is still being sought.

Dussey-Cavassini said there was a great deal of progress on PPPs a few years ago, but that now there is a danger of missing out on opportunities of coming together and bringing different talents together to address problems. She cited a recent example in Switzerland of a cooperation among a range of stakeholders to agree to lower sugar content in breakfast cereal. A partnership comes when groups realise they have a similar goal, and work together to achieve it, she said.

One panellist said afterward that to eliminate TB, it was not an option not to work with the private sector. It is also seen that many problems cannot be solved with the existing infrastructures in countries. To achieve the goals of 2030 will require a change in “mindset,” he said.

In his remarks, Sahu said the group has active private sector representatives on its Board. With TB, he said, “we require new tools. The private sector is where it will happen.”

Uplekar said they looked at how to get the public and private sectors together, and looked for working models at the country level. For instance, while the United States is a model in many things, “how many countries would want to emulate the US policy on healthcare?”

The private sector is an essential part of global anti-TB efforts, he said.

For her part, Lia highlighted the importance of trust.

Report

The report on PPPs in China and India described how the public and private sectors come to trust one another as legitimate partners. But it identified three gaps to be addressed: the “execution” gap, which refers to the readiness of public sector executives to work with the private sector; the “financing” gap, which is the difference between what the public sector wants to finance and what it has the ability to finance; and the “innovation” gap in which the public sector is reluctant to invest in the “abundant technology available to address productivity and improve outcomes.” This is of growing concern in the healthcare sector, the report noteds, and particularly the case in China.

The report looks at PPPs from a “framework” basis, rather than a “contract” basis, focusing on optimal and sustainable PPP configurations toward solving public policy problems.

The 18-page report was the result of 18 months of research by four people, including nine trips to India and China and more than 160 interviews.

 

 

Image Credits: W New