"We are living in an unfair world, and that gonna not change whether you like or not"!..This was an opening statement by one of the speakers in a conference on "the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in equity in health care". He was representing a Multinational corporation that has signed more that 200 PPPs in the world, especially in developing countries, where because of poverty, governments find themselves signing such PPPs in order that they can at least provide social services to their people. The company having been working in health care technologies, have facilitated building up to date health care facilities and supplied up to date medical equipment to these countries. The fact that they have technologies and are looking for profits, it is without doubt that they will not provide services to the people without profit. At the time when these deals are signed and implemented, no one can clearly see that" this as a profit making business" as the recipient governments and the citizens look at what they get at that time, but they don't attribute to what is going to happen later. The dark side of these partnerships is making the governments or the people dependent to the technologies brought by a partnering company ,in which afterwards, you might find these technologies to be very expensive. These deals have contributed to increased inequalities and poverty in most of the developing countries. It has become at least difficult talking about Social justice when these companies are involved in PPPs
The Private sector ( especially the Multinational corporations and Foundations) is becoming more powerful than governments in developing countries, they take advantage of corrupt governments to sign PPPs that are not advantageous to these countries, but to themselves and the countries they represent.
As a point of departure from imaginary world, he pointed out of the fact that we can not eliminate inequalities in this world, what we can do is just to reduce it by few kilometers.
Public-Private Partneships can take different forms, and sometimes it is difficult even to know how does a Private sector differ from a public one.
However, this was an example of the Private for profit Multinational companies, that might not represent all what is done by the Private sector in eliminating inequalities in the health sector. The private sector in the health sector in many developing countries is composed of Non-for profit foundations, Faith based organisations, Private for profit institutions and Private practitioners (who on part time basis work in Private clinics/ hospitals). Through the Non-for profit and Faith based organisations, alot have been done in eliminating inequalities in the health sector. Different innovations have been encouraged to increase access to health care services even to hard to reach areas. The fact that the role of the government is to provide services its citizens, non-for profit and religious organisations share this goal; therefore this partnership is a partnership that has the same goal, unlike the private for profit multinational corporations.
Should governments in developing countries opt out partnering with profit making multinational corporations in order to provide equitable social service?
The Private sector ( especially the Multinational corporations and Foundations) is becoming more powerful than governments in developing countries, they take advantage of corrupt governments to sign PPPs that are not advantageous to these countries, but to themselves and the countries they represent.
As a point of departure from imaginary world, he pointed out of the fact that we can not eliminate inequalities in this world, what we can do is just to reduce it by few kilometers.
Public-Private Partneships can take different forms, and sometimes it is difficult even to know how does a Private sector differ from a public one.
However, this was an example of the Private for profit Multinational companies, that might not represent all what is done by the Private sector in eliminating inequalities in the health sector. The private sector in the health sector in many developing countries is composed of Non-for profit foundations, Faith based organisations, Private for profit institutions and Private practitioners (who on part time basis work in Private clinics/ hospitals). Through the Non-for profit and Faith based organisations, alot have been done in eliminating inequalities in the health sector. Different innovations have been encouraged to increase access to health care services even to hard to reach areas. The fact that the role of the government is to provide services its citizens, non-for profit and religious organisations share this goal; therefore this partnership is a partnership that has the same goal, unlike the private for profit multinational corporations.
Should governments in developing countries opt out partnering with profit making multinational corporations in order to provide equitable social service?
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