The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, has announced a new strategy for addressing Africa's health challenges that involves mobilizing up to $1 billion in investment and advisory services over the next five years to boost socially responsible health care.

The effort was prompted by a recent IFC report which found that spending on health in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double over the next ten years and that investments of $25 billion to $30 billion will be needed to meet the demand. Funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the report, The Business of Health in Africa: Partnering with the Private Sector to Improve People's Lives, argues that the private sector, which already is delivering 50 percent of healthcare goods and services to the region's people, will have to play a key role in helping meet the demand. "IFC's report underscores the significant role the private sector in sub-Saharan Africa plays in delivering health interventions, including critical services to the poor," said Tadataka Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program. "It also makes a compelling investment case for private capital seeking financial and social returns on investment.

According to the report, the private sector — including both for-profit and nonprofit institutions — is only part of the solution and must work with the public sector to develop viable, sustainable, and equitable healthcare systems.

As part of the new initiative, IFC will partner with donors, finance institutions, and other groups to mobilize up to $850 million for development of a socially responsible private health sector in Africa over the next five years. IFC and its partners will also mobilize up to $150 million for a number of initiatives designed to improve the operating environment for private healthcare organizations and will sponsor a series of health and investment forums in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa, as well as civil society meetings in Europe during the first quarter of 2008.

"This is a chance to increase access to health care for millions of Africans," said IFC executive vice president and CEO Lars Thunell. "If we can get all the critical players — governments, donors, investors, and providers — to leverage the private health sector and integrate it effectively with public systems, we can also greatly improve the quality of care."