The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a global surge in demand for health services. As a result, all countries are striving to increase their capacity to test, trace and treat COVID-19 patients while maintaining essential health services. In the current global context, the pandemic is overwhelming the public health system, and turning to the private sector for additional capacity has become an important part of the campaign to save lives.

WHO has developed interim guidance to help governments engage with the private health sector as part of a whole-of-society response to the pandemic and to seek its support in maintaining essential health services. The guidance emphasizes the importance of ensuring a coordinated response with actors in the private sector and civil society, and the need for the governments to be creative in the types of partnerships adopted, flexible in their application of regulations, and strategic in their attempts to cover the costs.

In this context, the WHO Regional Office undertook a study exploring the role of the private health sector in the COVID-19 response. The study will be completed in February 2021 and covers 12 countries of the Region: Egypt, Iraq, Islamic Republic of Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Pakistan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

This review provides policy options to guide the formulation of strategic measures by the WHO Regional Office, health ministries, development partners and private sector actors on how to engage, leverage and regulate the capacities of the private sector in responding to emergencies, building health system resilience and their engagement in working towards achieving universal health coverage in the Region.

This study provides contextual evidence from countries of the Region on the diversity of state sponsored financing initiatives in place for purchasing services of private sector providers, a contextual snapshot of the private provider market in the Region, as well as capacity concerns expressed by country stakeholders for implementation of financing the private health sector to achieve universal health coverage.

Two reports are under development to explore the role of the private sector in the provision of services related to communicable diseases and immunization in Pakistan and Morocco.

Two reports are under development to explore the role of the private sector in the provision of services related to communicable diseases and immunization in Pakistan and Morocco.

This project aims to understand the current status of private health sector engagement in emergency care systems and develop recommendations for best practice for private health sector engagement in emergency care systems in the Region.

This report provides recommendations for enhancing the role of the private health sector in mental health services in the Region through 11 case studies and outlines an agenda for further research.

This study focuses on the contribution of the for-profit private health sector in combating NCDs at the primary health care level in countries of the Region.

This study focuses on exploring the contribution and engagement of the private health sector in the implementation /financing of nutrition-specific interventions, addressing the double burden of malnutrition in the Region.

This report aims to discuss data information management in the private health sector and its integration within health information systems on the national level. The report is currently being developed.

The study aims to: assess the contribution of the private health sector to primary, secondary, and tertiary levels for delivering in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services in the Region; explore the best practices of engagement with the private health sector and identify the potential areas of intervention for improvement; and formulate recommendations to improve and leverage private health sector engagement in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services at all levels in countries of the Region.

The study aims to explore the role of the private health sector in promoting oral health and in dental service delivery in the Region. The report is currently being developed.

This is a background paper that was developed for a regional consultative meeting in August 2020. The paper provides an overview of the financing options for better private health sector engagement, including though public-private partnership in the Region, the role of the private health sector in universal health coverage and a review and update to the WHO framework on the private health sector in universal health coverage.

This report provides a review of the health workforce implications of the growing private sector in health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region with a focus on dual practice, which will encompass review of the evidence base on policy implications of dual practice for health professionals, and setting out proposed next steps to develop a better understanding of approaches in the Region.