“You need to know your partners’ motivations”, said Andrew Jones, the Head of Partnerships at the UK’s Health and Education Trust (THET) in the workshop hosted by ESTHER Germany  on October 16th 2017. Jointly, the public and private sectors can work towards the sustainable development goals (SDGs). 

Members and partners of the ESTHER Alliance for Global Health Partnerships and of the health industry gathered in Berlin in a workshop at the World Health Summit in order to get to know each other and explore how institutional health partnerships could be a tool to make innovation accessible in resource-poor settings and a means of working jointly for mutual benefit.

An Innovative Multi-stakeholder Approach to Improve Quality and Access to Care

As a keynote speaker, Farid Lamara from Expertise France and General Secretary of the ESTHER Alliance gave a short introduction to the history, approach and sustainability of ESTHER partnerships: these are long-term partnerships of peer clinicians and other health professionals. Mr. Lamara observes great opportunities in the engagement of the private sector in institutional health partnerships: Private industry can support larger partnership projects targeting the improvement of quality and access to care. In addition to financial means, companies can offer expertise in areas relevant to partnership projects. Moderated by Brigitte Jordan-Harder, a senior technical advisor for GIZ, the panelists engaged in a lively discussion summarized below.

Mr Warnken, Head of the Health Division at Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) underlined the German commitment to university and hospital partnerships as an innovative cooperation instrument to strengthen health systems and presented the Hospital Partnerships Initiative. The Initiative has been successful since its launch in 2016 – it has already funded 66 health partnerships in 30 countries. The partnerships represent an opportunity to mobilize new actors for development cooperation, particularly hospitals and health staff in Germany. The Initiative is also an example of cooperation with a private foundation, the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation, characterized by strong joint commitment for strengthening health services in developing countries.

Mr Madeija, representing the pharmaceutical company Bayer reported on his company’s engagement with the Access Accelerated Initiative. Supported by 22 big pharmaceutical companies, the goal of the initiative is to improve diagnosis and treatment of non-communicable diseases, like diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases and cancer in low- and middle-income countries. To do so companies contribute to building capacity and strengthening health systems in partnership with governments and considering local conditions and policies. For Bayer, ESTHER partnerships are perfect implementing partners to deliver capacity-building measures. Mr Madeija added that his company, as others, has an interest in contributing to stronger economies by improving the health of their populations, given that dynamic economies open new business markets.

Mr Cunnaku, Deputy Director at VAMED agreed on the potential of the private sector for supporting capacity-building in developing countries in areas such as information and communication technology (ICT). E-learning offers great opportunities to improve the skills of health professionals in remote areas. When involved in hospital partnerships, the private sector can offer a wide range of technical solutions to strengthen health systems in the developing world.

Andrew Jones from the British organisation THET added another perspective: THET has been using its Health Partnership approach towards workforce development since 1988. The NGO is part of the ESTHER Alliance. Since 2012, THET has collaborated with the company Johnson & Johnson in specific thematic areas such as surgery, anaesthesia and the development of community health workers. From his experience, a private company’s interest in using a partnership approach lies in the uniqueness of institutional health partnerships: They are an exchange platform between professionals from Southern and Northern countries with an evident impact on health systems. Mr Jones explained the process of developing a tripartite partnership and underlined how important it is to openly communicate about particular interests in order to build trust and ensure a win-win-win environment.

Mr Hemmer from the University of Rostock presented the perspective of a German hospital participating in a long-term ESTHER partnership with Cameroonian hospitals in Limbe and Bamenda and more recently in Kindia (Guinea); both partnerships are funded through GIZ’s regional programme University and Hospital Partnerships in Africa. For their African colleagues, these exchanges offer an opportunity to access state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic practice. Among the German partners involved are notably Departments of Tropical Medicine. Doctors hardly see clinical cases of tropical diseases in Germany. It is therefore a great learning opportunity for both sides.

Overall, there was consensus that the Sustainable Development Agenda and Universal Health Coverage cannot be reached without the private sector playing its part. Discussions on concrete mechanisms and conditions for German partners to cooperate with the private sector to ensure transparency and fair competition will be jointly developed with the public sector.