The Challenge
The Government of Benin (GOB) has made remarkable progress toward its goal of providing quality health services to meet the needs of the Beninese people by 2025; however, Benin has struggled to meet the targets set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 relating to maternal and child health. In response to this challenge, the Ministry of Health has prioritized the national scale-up of “PIHI” (Package of High-Impact Interventions), a set of evidence-based, high-impact newborn, child, and reproductive health interventions focused at the community and health facility levels.
The Opportunity
GOB’s investments in PIHI seek to address root causes of under-five and maternal mortality and morbidity through improved quality and performance of health-care delivery via strengthened public- and private-sector health services, a more fully aware and empowered population, and increased care-seeking behavior.
The government has emphasized the importance of the private health sector for delivering PIHI and achieving MDGs 4 and 5. There are several key opportunities to improve private health sector performance in delivering integrated family health services. These include improving the registration and regulation of private sector facilities; improving the capacity of private sector providers to provide high-quality PIHI services and introducing incentives for quality; and encouraging greater collaboration between public- and private-sector service delivery organizations and associations. Moreover, several opportunities exist to strengthen the use of health financing mechanisms, such as health insurance schemes, to ensure high-quality delivery of PIHI services in both the public and private sectors.
Our Work
The Advancing Newborn, Child, and Reproductive Health (ANCRE) Program supports USAID/Benin’s Integrated Family Health Program to improve the quality and coverage of PIHI in Benin. R4D is working in partnership with University Research Co., LLC (URC) and Dimagi, Inc. to support the GOB’s efforts to achieve improved and sustainable health outcomes.
R4D’s work focuses on strengthening the private sector provision of high-impact primary health care interventions and using health financing mechanisms to increase access to and quality of PIHI services. R4D is supporting improvements to the regulation and registration of private-sector providers and is strengthening the quality and quantity of PIHI services offered in the private sector. R4D is also working to strengthen collaboration between private sector providers and health financing mechanisms, such as community-based health insurance schemes, and is supporting the introduction of financial incentives to address the barriers to health care faced by mothers and children.
