For 40 years, PATH has spearheaded global health innovation by working across both private and public sectors. In doing so, PATH is uniquely positioned to identify challenges to creating effective partnerships across sectors, and what conditions are needed to fully leverage the comparative advantages of each sector to advance global health and development goals.
In recent years, the private sector has been more engaged than ever in bringing its unique expertise, networks, and resources to the table to solve some of the world’s leading health and development challenges, and advancements in science, technology, and connectivity have created new opportunities for private-sector engagement in foreign assistance.
Despite these successes, private-sector partnerships capable of driving health innovation often fail to realize their full potential. Too often, partnerships are established without the right expertise; are created in silos or as one-off, short term projects; or are not designed to reach those with the greatest need. With no standardized model of partnership that all sectors can follow, these challenges will persist at the expense of precious time and effort. A modern approach is needed to optimize multisector partnerships and maximize impact.
In the report “Innovating Foreign Assistance: Harnessing the Power of the Private Sector to Achieve US Global Health and Development Goals,” PATH identifies challenges to modernizing partnerships—including creating a shared value and vision; taking a long-term view; and financing innovation in and for resource-limited settings—and barriers to working across sectors, then provides recommendations for tearing down these walls to create this modern approach that has seen proven success. With possibilities ranging from developing frameworks to guide multisector partnerships for development to promoting and expanding the use of government incentives to support innovation, PATH draws from its experience to offer ambitious but feasible ways to shake up the public private partnership model.
Read the report to learn more.