Project Overview
Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus is USAID’s flagship initiative in private sector health. The project seeks to harness the full potential of the private sector and catalyze public-private engagement to improve health outcomes in family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, and other health areas. SHOPS Plus supports the achievement of US government health priorities and improves the equity and quality of the total health system.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 50% of family planning clients obtain their methods from private providers. In Asia, the number rises to 65%. Similarly, for the treatment for childhood illnesses, the majority of caregivers turn to private providers. Only by working with this critical sector of the health system can we achieve global health coverage. To ensure effective and sustainable outcomes, SHOPS Plus is committed to integrating gender-sensitive approaches and female empowerment throughout its activities.
Approach
SHOPS Plus aims to increase use of priority health services by:
- Improving the enabling environment for the private health sector
- Strengthening provision of private sector information, products, and services, resulting in expanded access for underserved populations
- Increasing effective public-private engagement
- Sharing innovative, emerging, and tested private sector models.
- Applying a total market approach
Accomplishments
Here are a few examples of our impact around the world.
- Facilitated a policy change in Rwanda to allow the administration of injectables in private pharmacies.
- Used a gender-transformative supportive supervision approach to training that resulted in over 100,000 new family planning users in Nigeria
- Brokered a new multi-stakeholder agreement in the Dominican Republic that increases access to HIV services and supports the sustainability of the country’s HIV response.
- Responded rapidly to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Treated 1.6 million cases of childhood diarrhea, reached 36 million consumers with health messages, and provided over 2 million CYPs.
SHOPS Plus serves as the secretariat for two technical working groups supported by USAID’s Office of Population and Reproductive Health focused on drug shops/pharmacies and a total market approach. The SHOPS Plus child health advisor co-chairs the Private Sector Engagement subgroup Child Health Task Force, funded by USAID and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The deputy director is a board member of the Global Finance Facility Investors Group.
To learn more about the project, contact:
Elaine Menotti, AOR
United States Agency for International Development
Susan Mitchell, Project Director
Abt Associates