The role of the private sector in improving the delivery of healthcare in developing countries is still being debated. Although private sector strategies may improve efficiencies and lower costs, some fear that turning healthcare entirely into a consumer service will marginalize the poor even further, or question whether or not providing healthcare to low income communities can be done profitably. The debate may finally be settled based on the success of several new business models that are blurring the line between NGOs and the private sector.

This report highlights a number of such enterprises organized into four broad categories: franchised networks that provide health services, ventures that produce health-related consumer products, enterprises that provide financial services and health insurance, and entities that are using the latest technologies to provide world class healthcare.

This post is a continuation of an interview Nextbillion conducted with Prof. David Wheeler, who recently wrote an insightful piece on how sustainable local enterprise networks can enable bottom-up development at the base of the pyramid. The interview will conclude next week. To read the first post, click here.

What components of Sustainable Local Enterprise Networks are crucial for their success? How strong is the empirical support for this model?

We found four classes of asset growth to be common in virtually all examples of successful ‘sustainable local enterprise’ we studied: social capital (goodwill), human capital (skills and know how), ecological capital and financial capital. Where these asset classes received synergistic investment or re-investment the network grew in scope and resilience. From this perspective we can begin to understand why so much development assistance has failed in the past.