The Uganda Private Providers Loan Fund - A Private-Sector Intervention to Improve Women's Health: Using Microcredit to Improve and Expand Private Health Practices that Serve Women and Children

This investment profile of 'The Uganda Private Providers Loan Fund' explains how this project uses microcredit to improve and expand private health practices that serve women and children.

The profile discusses:

• The background of the project and the role of the private sector in the delivery of health in Uganda;
• The project objective, which is to provide access to credit and technical assistance to private providers, thereby increasing the viability of their practices and improving and expanding their services;
• The project design, including:
  • The two main components of financing and technical assistance,
  • Project partners: the Summa Foundation, the Uganda Microfinance Union, the Uganda Private Midwives Association and the Commercial Market Strategies Project (CMS).
• The expected health impact of the project, including the development of indicators to measure:
  • Expansion of private practices,
  • Improvements in the quality of private practices and the viability of private practices.

The profile concludes that:

• This project will assist at least 280 private providers to:
  • Increase the viability of their practices,
  • Improve the sustainable delivery of family planning and microfinance, maternal and child health services in Uganda.
• By monitoring and evaluating the success of the project, Summa aims to:
  • Derive lessons that can be used to expand or replicate this financing model in the future,
  • Link private providers and local financial institutions to make local capital available to expand and improve the private health sector in Uganda.