Advancing Family Planning Access and Use through Social Enterprises: Lessons from the HANSHEP Health Enterprise Fund

SHOPS Plus project conducted a longitudinal study with 3 of the 16 grantees of the HANSHEP Health Enterprise Fund, a challenge fund that identified and supported private sector solutions to address family planning and other health priorities in sub-Saharan Africa under the SHOPS project from 2013 to 2015. The study examined how grantees have increased access to family planning products and services since the end of the fund, and its findings document the value of investing in private sector social enterprises as a means of increasing access to family planning. Selected for their provision of family planning along with other primary health care services, these enterprises demonstrate how private sector engagement and social enterprise investment can deliver on family planning goals. This report focuses on two organizations in Kenya—Afya Research Africa and Jacaranda Health—particularly on how they have increased access and use of family planning via their broader business models. The two organizations provide excellent case studies for how to support social enterprises. Also included are observations on a third enterprise, Telemed Medical Services, in Ethiopia, which withdrew from the study. The report documents lessons to inform future partnerships and investment in social enterprises. It also advances the business case for investing in such enterprises to increase family planning access, and shares lessons on how the United States Agency for International Development and its partners can support enterprises in achieving sustainability and scale.