Public Health and Private Contributions: A Joint Effort
The combination of resources is essential for improving healthcare systems. An overview of the different forms of collaboration.
The coronavirus pandemic in 2020 exposed multiple aspects of global health systems. Among them, it highlighted the importance of collaboration between the public and private sectors, especially in vulnerable communities facing major obstacles to accessing quality services.
What became clear is that no health system can face today’s challenges alone. This gave renewed strength to the concept of collaborative health, in which governments, private organizations, foundations, and civil society work together to strengthen healthcare delivery and improve the social determinants of health.
A Necessary Alliance to Provide Essential Responses
Equitable access to healthcare remains one of the greatest global challenges. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that more than 2 billion people lack access to essential medicines and nearly 50% of the world’s population does not receive basic quality health services.
In areas affected by extreme poverty, conflict, or natural disasters, this gap is even wider. Addressing it is an urgent necessity.
Private contributions—ranging from financing to technological innovation, logistics, and training—become key complements to state efforts. Pharmaceutical companies, philanthropic organizations, medical technology firms, and health insurers all play a role in investing in access to essential services, particularly where public infrastructure is limited.
In several countries, public-private collaboration models have delivered positive results in improving public health.
In Latin America, Brazil’s Todos a Bordo program brought together the Ministry of Health and private companies to deliver mobile clinics to rural communities, providing primary care, vaccinations, and health education programs. This initiative reduced vaccine-preventable disease rates in isolated areas by 35%.
Examples like this underscore the different forms collaboration can take:
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Financing: investments in infrastructure, medical equipment, medicines, and public health programs.
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Innovation: development of new technologies for diagnosis, treatment, and health data management.
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Training: education and continuing development programs for healthcare professionals in modern medical techniques.
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Logistics and distribution: supply chain expertise to ensure medicines, vaccines, and equipment reach the most remote areas.
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Awareness campaigns: support for education on disease prevention, nutrition, and healthy habits.
While these measures can improve healthcare conditions, private contributions do not replace the role of the state. Instead, they act as support mechanisms to strengthen weakened or overburdened health systems.
Partnerships with the public sector must be grounded in clear ethical principles. Transparency, accountability, and prioritizing community needs over commercial interests are essential conditions for building strong trust between parties.
The WHO and other leading entities provide frameworks to guide such alliances, with an emphasis on avoiding conflicts of interest and, above all, ensuring that benefits reach the most vulnerable populations.
They also encourage the concept of co-creating solutions, where local communities actively participate in program design to ensure interventions respect their culture, values, and socioeconomic realities. No public health program can succeed without considering the communities it serves. Public-private partnerships must include a community-centered approach that empowers local leaders, trains community health promoters, and guarantees open and ongoing communication channels.
Community organizations are key allies, enabling strategies to be adapted to local realities and magnifying their impact.
Looking Toward the Near Future
The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes the importance of building partnerships across sectors to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Joint efforts between public health and private contributions are one of the essential tools for addressing structural inequalities and improving the well-being of millions of vulnerable people.
Far from representing competition between sectors, this collaboration enhances capacities, multiplies resources, and accelerates the changes needed to build fairer, healthier societies.
The future of global health may well depend on the ability of all actors to work together under a shared commitment.