Prioritizing Public-Private Partnerships in Indonesia's Health Policy
In a diverse, geographically vast country such as Indonesia, private sector engagement in the health sector is a critical component of increasing access to and improving the quality of health services for all—particularly in areas where these services are lacking. The government of Indonesia has prioritized private sector engagement and public-private partnerships (PPPs) as strategic initiatives in achieving the country’s development goals. Through PPPs, each partner leverages the resources, expertise, and efficiencies of the other to achieve better health, societal, and economic outcomes.
HP+ has been working with Indonesia’s Centre for Health Financing and Risk Protection (PPJK) at the MOH to develop technical guidelines on non-infrastructure PPPs so that the processes and tools are readily available for use by public and private sector partners. Non-infrastructure PPPs focus on health services, such as contracting with NGOs for community prevention and promotion campaigns; with professional associations for service provider quality assurance; with technology companies to develop software for electronic referral systems; or with private training institutions to scale up new curriculums across the archipelago. As a result of advocacy by PPJK, Indonesia's Ministry of Planning listed non-infrastructure PPP policy adoption and implementation as one of the priority areas for health sector reform. In June of this year, the Secretary General of the MOH authorized presenting the technical guidelines, developed with HP+ support, to MOH senior leadership at their next meeting as part of the final steps of the policy adoption process.
These partnerships present a unique, innovative opportunity for the health sector to better address health access, gaps in achieving quality targets, and system inefficiencies—ultimately benefiting not only the public and private sectors, but the health and well-being of all Indonesians.
