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Access to Financing: A Constraint to Private Health-Sector Development

Expanding access to finance is increasingly recognized as a useful tool in working with the private sector. In a climate of limited resources, however, it is important for public health policy makers to assess the magnitude of the financing constraint and to determine the effectiveness of increasing access to finance in improving public health outcomes through the private sector. This paper seeks to inform the policy debate by answering the following questions: Is access to finance a constraint to the development of the private health sector? If the answer is yes, how does lack of finance constrain private-sector development? This paper uses a small and medium enterprise (SME) development framework to answer these questions.