Abstract
SUMMARY OVERVIEW
The Market-based Partnerships for Health (MBPH) project successfully designed, implemented, and evaluated a wide range of private partnerships and initiatives that addressed a number of critical public health issues. In less than four years, and with a modest budget, MPBH made significant progress, building upon previous partnership models and exploring new opportunities to engage commercial private sector partners to test approaches ultimately designed to improve health outcomes for Base-of-Pyramid (BoP) families. Key MBPH achievements:
- Developed eight partnership models;
- Demonstrated some success in execution, cost sharing, and commitment of partners to scale-up (or at least have scale-up potential) in each model;
- Introduced nine health companies to profitable BoP markets; and
- Leveraged over six million dollars from partners.
Partners as varied as ITC, Sonata, ISMH doctors, and chemist shop owners joined MBPH to develop concepts and roadmaps to tap new markets and improve access to and use of public health products and services among poorer and hard-to-reach families.
BACKGROUND
Market-based Partnerships for Health (MBPH) is a $13.5 million USAID/India funded project implemented by Abt Associates between October 1, 2008 and May 11, 2012. MBPH aimed to improve the environment for commercial sector engagement in USAID/India’s key priority health areas by forging partnerships between the private and public sectors. MBPH fostered market-based partnerships in reproductive health, maternal health, and child health, including promotion of good hygiene, such as hand washing; safe water; prevention of indoor air pollution (IAP); and the control of tuberculosis. MBPH is operational in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Karnataka.
The project had two primary objectives:
- Build on, implement, institutionalize, and scale-up MBPH models.
- Explore new commercial-sector opportunities to accelerate public health improvements, especially in BoP and rural population groups, improving access, demand, and service delivery through health and non-health partners.
The program aimed to create and nurture MBPH models that can be brought to scale by commercial partners, government programs, and/or civil society groups. The program also sought to institutionalize local capacity to broker market-based partnerships for health in the future by supporting the establishment of a Center of Excellence.
