Leveraging Social Business in Public Private Partnership for Sustainable Rural Health Care: A Proposed Conceptual Model

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework that will assess the scope of social business to collaborate with government through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in the rural health care system. Design/methodology/approach: This work is a conceptual paper. The study is mainly qualitative in nature which followed systematic literature review including grey literature and developed a conceptual framework on PPP theory for Social Business. Apart from using secondary data, the research is also based on personal observation through visiting different rural part of the country. Findings: The conceptual framework of this paper provides a greater prospect of access to the rural health care through a Social Business-PPP project while indicating the determinants that integrate demand and supply-side-factors all along the process of obtaining health care and benefiting from the services. Limitations: This is a theoretical paper where the validity of the conceptual model can be established by testing the research proposition. Implications: Improving the health and longevity is not only a part of development goals, but also a fundamental object to achieve the economic progress of a nation. Therefore, health care must be addressed in any comprehensive development strategy for a country. Bangladesh is one of the developing countries which has given special attention on its health care policy, but it has failed to improve the health care system significantly especially for the rural people. Similar to many developing countries, majority of the population in Bangladesh lives in rural areas; but they lack the basic public health infrastructure and quality service at an affordable cost. The deficiencies of the public health sector have forced the poor people to seek health services from the private sector which are better equipped but mostly are driven by profit motives and also unregulated. On the other hand, NGOs working in rural health sector have limited coverage and also subject to the availability of foreign aid or donor’s fund. Given the inefficiencies and lack of existing players in country’s health care sectors, Social Business can be a straightforward solution to address the growing rural public health issue. Social Business, introduced by Professor Muhammad Yunus in 2007, is a competitive business model which is formed with the aim of solving a social problem faced by the poor ensuring adequate profit generation for the sustainability of the firm. As the target group of social business is poor people, operational activities is mainly based on rural areas and is financially self-sustainable, therefore it can be an instrumental factor for the development of the health care system in rural area. In addition, a partnership with government can strengthen the health care activities towards fulfilling the basic health care needs of the poor people. And ultimately, this Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between government and social business firm would make the health care more accessible and affordable to the poor people mostly living in rural area. Contribution: This would bring a greater understanding of the role of ‘Social Business’ in the business of providing health care to disadvantaged populations. Moreover, our conceptual framework is to guide the discourse and decision making by communities, clinicians, managers and policy makers, with a focus on health care system around the world where rural and poor people are expected to have greater and improved healthcare facilities.