Lessons from linking private health care networks to domestic financing.
Many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have committed to ambitious family planning (FP) goals, including expanding access to and choice of high-quality FP services and products. These initiatives are often underpinned by service delivery in both the public and private health care sectors. This report provides insights on engaging the private sector within national stewardship and financing systems for FP, including experience from the USAID-funded Support for International Family Planning and Health Organizations 2: Sustainable Networks (SIFPO2) initiative’s in-country work to support financing and stewardship models for FP/RH PPE within “mixed health systems”. These insights draw upon private sector engagement efforts by Results for Development (R4D) and Population Services International (PSI) under SIFPO2, and highlight the challenges for expanding access to FP through the private sector in contexts where government capacity and functions for private sector engagement are still emerging and evolving. Insights are of relevance to global and national funders, as well as stewards and managers of FP programs.