ABSTRACT
Public–private partnership (PPP) has become a buzzword in development discourses and frameworks, epitomizing an emerging paradigm in social welfare programs and service delivery. Although many PPPs were initiated in the late 1990 s with a targeted focus on specific diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, they fit within a wider framework seeking to improve the delivery of health and welfare services targeted at a wider range of health problems (Barr, 2007). This trend ensues from changes in the context of international cooperation for health and an ideological shift derived from economic philosophy and new thinking on the prevailing sociopolitical orthodoxy, economic globalization, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) advocacy (Brown, Khagram, Moore, & Frumkin, 2000; Buse & Walt, 2000). Furthermore, staggering deficits in health care delivery in developing countries, linked to adverse effects of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and 1990s, induced drastic cuts in public expenditure and steady disengagement of the state in essential social welfare provision. As a result, massive cuts in health and education expenditures have led to a backlash in health and education outcomes. The dire state of health provision in many developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, has triggered creative convergences in health care delivery. The shift is signified by the existence of more than 75 health-related PPPs such as the “Roll Back Malaria Global Partnership,” “the Global Network on Household Water Treatment,” “The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative” (Buse & Walt, 2000; Curtis, Scott, & Garbrah-Aidoo, 2007), Bill and Melinda Gates Children’s Vaccine Program, and “The African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships.” Within the PPP frameworks, attempts are made to harness complementary contributions from the commercial and public sectors as assets to build on to meet a shared goal (Buse & Walt, 2000; Curtis et al., 2007).
