Population Council Research that makes a difference

In many developing countries, the private sector delivers a substantial proportion, if not the majority, of health care, including reproductive health services. The private sector encompasses a range of service-delivery mechanisms, including nonprofit NGOs, for-profit organizations, and private individuals and clinics, as well as pharmaceutical companies. Family planning users, even the poorest, often seek services in the private sector for a variety of reasons, including commodity supplies, easier access, shorter waiting times, and friendlier staff. Yet the potential role of the private sector has not been fully leveraged to increase access to and use of family planning.

Population Council focus
The Council develops, tests, and evaluates a range of models for increasing the role of the private sector in delivering contraceptive methods, including public–private partnerships and innovative financing mechanisms. The Council also develops tools that help private-sector practitioners operate more efficiently and offer services that can reach the poorest populations.

Population Council impact

• The International Contraceptive Access (ICA) Foundation is a public–private partnership between the Population Council and Bayer Schering Pharma that provides developing-country organizations with highly subsidized levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine systems (LNG IUS) so that they can better serve poor and vulnerable women.
  
• In Latin America, the Council’s technical assistance to NGOs improved their sustainability. Council-supported marketing and economic analyses helped determine their market advantages relative to competitors.
  
• The Council is undertaking a large-scale program of research to better understand the role of output-based aid mechanisms in financing and delivering services through both private- and public-sector voucher and accreditation programs in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Pakistan, and Uganda, among others.
  
• In Kenya, the Council’s technical assistance helped self-employed midwives attain the business skills and financial literacy they needed to operate financially sustainable midwifery and family planning services.