Partnering with the Private Sector: New Frontiers

Date: Thursday, 13 December 2018
Time: 13:30 – 15:00
Location: Kogi

Session Overview:
Evidenced by recent and ongoing public health outbreaks in Africa, the role of the laboratory is critical for the robust and timely detection and response to public health threats. Establishing and maintaining quality laboratory services is, however, costly, and the public sector alone in most African countries cannot assume all of these costs. As such, many efforts are underway to establish public-private partnerships (PPPs) for improving laboratory diagnosis and enabling access to laboratory tests. Also of note in many countries is the involvement of private laboratories as part of the public health response.

Greater collaboration between the public and private sectors is a good strategy for various reasons, including creating channels for private capital to flow into the health sector, leveraging from private sector solutions and expertise to help resolve public health issues, and enabling quality improvements via technology and operational management exchanges between the two sectors.

This session seeks to:

(1) Examine the existing landscape of PPPs for laboratory services,

(2) Discuss what challenges impede the further use of PPPs for laboratory services and recommendations for how these might be addressed, and

(3) Identify opportunities for new PPPs related to laboratory services in the region.

  • Public-Private Partnership Yields Success: P.C.E.A Kikuyu’s Path to ISO 15189 Accreditation through the BD-PEPFAR Labs for Life Program
    • Thomas Gachuki, Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, Kenya
  • The Wall Which Should be Flown over in Laboratory Logistics by using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/UAV (Drone) to Accelerate UNAIDS 90-90-90 Target in Africa
    • Noafumi Hashimoto, Bureau for International Health Cooperation, NCGM, Japan
  • Leveraging Private Sector Transportation/Logistics Services to Improve the National Integrated Specimen Referral Network in Nigeria
    • Theophilus Faruna, USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program Procurement and Supply Management, Nigeria
  • Example of Private Laboratory Engagement for Public Health Response-Ethiopia
    • Dawit Moges, Sr Aklesia Memorial General Hospital and Hema Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory, Ethiopia
  •  Co-Conveners:
    • Mah-Séré Keita
      • African Society for Laboratory Medicine, Mali
    • Philip Onyebujoh
      • Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Ethiopia
  •  Speakers
    • Thomas Gachuki
      • Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, Kenya
    • Noafumi Hashimoto
      • Bureau for International Health Cooperation, NCGM, Japan
    • Theophilus Faruna
      • USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program Procurement and Supply Management, Nigeria
    • Dawit Moges
      • Sr Aklesia Memorial General Hospital and Hema Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory, Ethiopia