The unique benefits the private sector offers reproductive health supply access

People working in reproductive health often reference the private sector, but what does the term “private sector” mean for family planning? Many of us immediately think of for‑profit drug manufacturers, but it not just that. The private sector is a broader ecosystem of actors operating outside direct government control, and delivering health‑related goods and services for a fee. Actors include:

1. Social marketing organizations
2. Private sector clinics and pharmacies.
3. Logistic firms and distributors that move commodities from manufacturers to the point of care
4. Media and demand generation agencies

Together, they form a market oriented network responding quickly to shifts in demand, scaling distribution, and innovating on pricing, packaging, and service delivery. I want to tell you two stories to illustrate the power of the private sector.

My first story comes from Ghana.

When COVID-19 struck Ghana in early 2020, the Ghana Health Service faced a paradox: women were afraid of unintended pregnancy during economic uncertainty, so demanded more contraception. At the same time, supply chain was seriously compromised by travel bans, closed borders, donor funding cuts, and staff changes.

DKT International was the only private sector actor in Ghana with enough stock of both long- and short-term contraceptives, a robust national distribution network, and expertise in promoting commodities to consumers.

In April 2020, the Ghana Health Service granted DKT a temporary permit to distribute short term methods directly to pharmacies and to supply long term contraceptives to maternity homes and clinics that were still operating during a national lockdown.

For the first time ever, a private social marketing organization (SMO) was acting as a public‑sector supplier! DKT called on its cold‑chain infrastructure and its network of 120 trained distributors to move millions of doses within weeks.

A DKT campaign emphasized that contraceptive use does not increase COVID‑19 risk, debunking social media rumors.

Private maternity homes faced stockouts, so DKT bought commodities from the public sector at reduced rates and redistributed them to these clinics, so women could get long-acting products without traveling to distant public hospitals.

DKT also supplied manual vacuum aspiration kits, combi-packs, and training to public sector facilities helping reduce maternal mortality during and after the pandemic. By helping keep reproductive health services functioning, DKT helped reduce unintended pregnancies and maternal mortality during a time when health system capacity was stretched thin.

What lessons did we learn?

• Speed matters: A private sector partner with pre positioned stock and distribution network can fill gaps faster than a public procurement cycle
• Flexibility is crucial: Temporary permissions allowed DKT to act as a public and private sector supplier
• Synergy, not competition: By purchasing commodities from the public sector and redistributing them to private clinics

My second story is about private sector partnerships in Latin America and the Caribbean — or the LAC region.

In Mexico and our eight other LAC countries, the contraceptive market is split into two parts — public and private. While public clinics offer long term contraceptives for free, private clinics also sell these methods, but their prices are much higher. Women with low and even middle incomes cannot afford private clinics prices although they may prefer them.

DKT’s strategy in the region:

1. We procure implants, IUS and IUDs at negotiated bulk rates and sell them at a margin that keeps prices competitive.
2. We distribute commodities in partnership with private sector distributors to ensure efficiency and coverage
3. We conduct hands-on workshops for clinicians, emphasizing technical proficiency and also client centered counseling. Empathy drives satisfaction, which in turn increases word of mouth referrals.
4. We use social media, influencer partnerships, and traditional media, to create a pipeline of informed clients who are then referred to our private partner clinics.

A story about a young woman from Mexico

María from Guadalajara wanted an IUS but could not afford the price at a large private hospital. She was referred to a DKT partnered clinic after contacting our team on Facebook when she saw a social media post highlighting “affordable, high quality IUS — now within reach.” After a brief consultation, María received the service for 50% less than the market price.

That single interaction illustrates how these four aligned incentives — affordable commodities from DKT, motivated distributors, empathetic quality service from the clinic, and targeted demand generation — can convert a potential consumer into a satisfied user. Multiply that across thousands of women, and the market share for private sector LARCs expands dramatically, creating a sustainable financing loop that does not rely solely on donor subsidies.

Because this model operates outside the constraints of public budgeting, it ensures continuous availability of LARCs and other reproductive graph services, even when donor funding fluctuates

What does the future hold? DKT’s private sector portfolio is expanding to male focused services, recognizing that reproductive autonomy involves both partners.

In Mexico, DKT piloted a social media driven campaign that educates men about vasectomy, offers free counseling, and connects them with accredited private clinics. The model projects over 3,000 vasectomies by 2026 in one small DKT clinic.

The key ingredients for private sector success are:

1. Firstly, aligning incentives: DKT, distributors, private sector clinics, donors, and governments.
2. Secondly, prioritizing collaboration over competition
3. Thirdly, prioritizing health outcomes, not just sales, can harness donor funding to lower prices without sacrificing sustainability.
4. And lastly, innovation like digital demand campaigns for vasectomy shows that the private sector is agile enough to respond to emerging needs, whether a pandemic or a shifting cultural landscape.

As a result, all actors are collectively creating a market where reproductive health is not a luxury but readily available health services that can withstand pandemics and other crises.

I have referred in this story to a special, invisible quality fueling success. That quality is empathy — an ability to understand and share what the client wants in her and his healthcare, and then to design a supply chain informed by that understanding.

Where there is empathy, there is hope.