Enhancing Locally Led Private Sector Engagement through Strategic Partnerships: An interview with FHM Engage partner Solina Health

Frontier Health Markets (FHM) Engage, USAID's global flagship private sector program, works through regional and local actors to localize health market support. In this way, FHM Engage aims to both properly contextualize market challenges and identify both workable and long-term solutions within the system. In its second year of implementation, FHM Engage has begun to build some solid relationships in its partner countries, including with Solina Group in Nigeria. Senior vice president for Chemonics Global Health Division Julie Becker, on behalf of FHM Engage, sat down with Principal of Solina Health Dr. Uchenna Igbokwe in Abuja to discuss Solina’s partnership with FHM Engage, both in Nigeria and in other countries, to improve private sector engagement and the functioning of health markets.

Tell us about your role in this project and what Solina is doing to support FHM Engage in Nigeria.

Solina is a Nigerian health systems consultancy that works with government, implementing partners, donor support, and very importantly, the private sector to design and implement innovative interventions, including market-based approaches to help to improve health outcomes for the most vulnerable. 

Solina is very excited with our work so far with FHM Engage and has been on as a network implementing partner working mainly in Nigeria all the way from the outset. I think the experience has been good because we've been busy, gratefully so, and in so doing, worked on many different activities with the FHM Engage team. I think, right from the outset, for the work of Nigeria, we’ve engaged on what's called field activities, which means working right here in Nigeria and right from the beginning, supporting the leadership of FHM Engage when they came into Nigeria with stakeholder engagement, trying to understand the lay of the land, speaking with the partners to introduce the project, and we then communicated in the first work plan – the first, even before a team was set up within Nigeria – so that was a great experience just working on that. 

I think beyond some of that work, which we've done specifically in Nigeria, we also participated in what’s called co-activities, where we even worked with experts that were outside the shores of Nigeria to think through specific issues on FHM Engage as well. And to come to mind, I think, one is the activity where we try to figure out how provider aggregation models work and what role they can play as part of FHM Engage more broadly and that research got across actually 10 countries – we are very excited to participate on that. The other example is the deep dive we’re also doing in Nigeria as a co-activity on supply chain. It is still early going. We’re seeking to understand for family planning specifically, how the supply chain works, what’s broken within that, and the role the private sector can play to help to improve it and improve outcomes in Nigeria as well. So, it's really been exciting. We've been really busy. We're learning a lot and yeah, the partnership has been excellent. 

We really appreciate your partnership. I'm wondering if you could maybe tell us what has been particularly useful or beneficial about FHM Engage in terms of building organizational capacity for Solina.

I think in our work with FHM Engage, one of the first things that comes to mind is the ethos – I think more broadly that Chemonics and the FHM Engage team and our partnership brings – that aligns very well with also the way we like to think about things at Solina. 

So I think, in terms of principles, this made that partnership work excellently, but as we started to work, we've also seen a lot of experience in terms of how, as a partner, we're benefiting, and capacities being built. I think one of those is in the kind of safe space that FHM Engage has created where every voice is heard. Opinions are valid; thinking around frameworks being used is open to contextualization and change. This has really helped the Solina team to be able to not just embed but feel like we could contribute meaningfully to the outputs that we had. 

Thank you, Uche. You know, I think that one thing we really appreciate about working with Solina is our alignment on the way we think technically the way we approach things technically and having the opportunity to have that full collaboration where were all at the table together is so important. I think we're going to come up with a better product as a result of that kind of true collaboration. So thank you. 

I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you think the roles are changing for international organizations and local partners. 

I think this is an important topic that is also being discussed not just by us, but everybody in this space, you know, thinking around the concept of localization. And this goes beyond USAID projects, but more around the way thinking around how global donors, implementing partners should think about implementing in our context, to be able to not just achieve results, but to achieve them sustainably. So I think with that in mind, there are a few things that also come to mind. I think one is in the past, I think we've come from a place where organizations like Solina – and of course many other local organizations in this space – we're seeing are small recipients of technical assistance (TA) from global partners. But at this point I think can be thought about as very effective, deliverers of  TA, actually, to build up the capacity of even younger, local organizations to come up. So I think the capacity has really been built over the last decade or so in local organizations that can implement to the quality necessary, and even have the systems – administrative systems, finance systems – to be able to account for resources that they are provided with and do that, you know, excellently. 

You know as somebody who's worked in this field for a long time, it's really heartening to see this evolution that you're talking about and the idea that our roles are changing as international organizations and high-capacity local organizations like Solina are taking on our role, our previous role as technical assistance partners, and we operate now in a different way. So, I love to see that evolution. 

I have one more question for you. What lessons or advice would you share with other partnering organizations as they come on board to work with FHM Engage?

I'll start by saying that I would recommend FHM Engage to our local partners. I think that's for a few reasons and I've touched on them already.

I think the second piece of advice I have as well is that partners should come ready to learn. I think you should come to this partnership thinking also about what you're going to take out of it in terms of capacity for you, for your team, how does this project leave you better, beyond just delivering of the activities after you've done it, as I said before. So I think that's also excellent.

I think in our interactions with FHM Engage, you know there's a lot of banter; it’s a great collaboration and I think I can summarize in the words of one of my teammates. He typically says, FHM Engage is like a box of chocolate, it’s diverse, it’s unexpected, but always a delight. So I think with those parting words, it just shows, our work with FHM Engage has really been great and complimentary, we've learnt a lot and are excited to continue to engage. 

Thank you so much. It's been a delight working with Solina Group. FHM Engage has been a real opportunity for all of us to learn how to do things differently, both technically, and in terms of the way we partner, and we're making great progress.  I think we're all going to be better as a result. Thank you.

Header image caption: Senior vice president of Chemonics’ Global Health Division Julie Becker (right) speaks with Dr. Uchenna (Uche) Igbokwe (left), a principal for Solina Group – one of the key partners implementing activities for FHM Engage in Nigeria – about the project’s partnering approach to improve private sector engagement and the functioning of health markets.