HANSHEP Health Enterprise Fund Research Study: Year 1 Findings

The HANSHEP Health Enterprise Fund (HHEF) was implemented as part of the Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) project from January 2013–June 2015. The HHEF selected enterprises and provided them with grant funding and technical assistance to increase the financial, knowledge, human, and social capital of the grantees to facilitate their transition to scale. This study examines three HHEF grantees and evaluates how they have increased access to family planning products and services since the end of the project. In addition, the study explores the technical and managerial capacities that were important for enterprise performance as well as the role that the HHEF interventions played in developing those capacities. The study finds that future interventions like the HHEF should consider framing development challenges in terms of market shortcomings, or root causes, which may lead to more effective solutions and greater opportunities for sustainable and scalable enterprise models that address them. In addition, future interventions should more intentionally consider the effect that the structure of the program itself have on enterprise behavior and outcomes.