Public-Private Partnerships for Maternal Health in Africa: Challenges and Prospects

The concept of public and private partnerships raises growing interest and hope from international development agencies, governments, and communities as an alternative strategy in social welfare delivery. Conceptualized as a strategy to build and capitalize on the tangible and intangible assets and resources endogenous to social organizations and communities, individually and collectively, this article embraces an asset-based approach to analyze the potency of such a framework in enhancing maternal health care delivery in developing countries such as Senegal and Mali. These countries face growing retrenchment of the state from social service delivery and scarcity of human and financial resources, which call for innovative approaches and sustainable solutions in addressing pervasive deficits in health service delivery. Drawing from empirical field research conducted in Senegal and Mali, this article examines the trend toward public-private partnerships and its gender impacts and critically analyzes the challenges and opportunities it offers conceptually and practically to address and improve equity in health care delivery, particularly safe motherhood and maternal health care delivery in developing countries.