Healthcare and risk pooling in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has about 11% of the world’s people, but it carries 24% of the global disease burden in human and financial costs. Almost half the world’s deaths of children under five take place in Africa. But according to a recent report by the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, this challenge is significant but not insurmountable. According to the report, “The Business of Health in Africa”, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, there is a tremendous opportunity to leverage the private sector in ways that improve access and increase the financing and quality of health care goods and services throughout Africa. In a region where public resources are limited, the private sector is already a significant player. Around 60% of health care financing in Africa comes from private sources, and about 50% of total health expenditure goes to private providers. Just as important, the vast majority of the region’s poor people, both urban and rural, rely on private health care. A poor woman with a sick child is more likely to go to a private hospital or clinic than to a public facility. Here Guy Elena , director of the IFC’s health and education department, comments on the significance of risk pooling arrangements in the provision of healthcare in Africa.