OPINION: Stop Applying for Everything: A Smarter Way to Approach Public Health Funding in Times of Scarcity
The problem In strategic planning conversations with local health departments (LHDs), one theme consistently rises to the top of every SWOT analysis: decreased funding is the biggest threat. In response, many teams do what feels natural. They scan for every possible opportunity and apply...
For Impactful Private Sector Engagement, the Details Matter
As countries work toward stronger, more resilient health supply chains, private-sector engagement (PSE) often plays a critical role. Private companies bring expertise in many areas including transportation and warehousing, telecommunications, pharmaceutical distribution and information systems — capabilities that can expand reach and improve efficiency across health systems....
Building Capabilities in Private Sector Engagement: Our Outsourced Transport Journey
At VillageReach, we believe leveraging private sector capacity for health supply chains is critical to driving sustained impact. Local private companies offer low- and middle-income country (LMIC) governments and their partners a variety of effective and cost-efficient solutions to strengthen health supply chains. One...
Putting in the Time: Continuous Advocacy for Policy Change in DRC
After four years of advocacy, VillageReach recently celebrated a critical policy milestone in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In September 2025, the DRC government published a new legal text, the National Drug Supply System (SNAM) decree. This SNAM decree explicitly allows World Health...
Sustaining Critical Health Information Systems with Private Sector Engagement
Foreign aid reductions have negatively impacted many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) health systems in a variety of ways. Aid funding has helped procure and deliver medicines and vaccines, supported health workers delivering health services, and enabled the digital systems that manage supply chain...
Where countries should invest for strong, self-reliant, people-centred supply chains
The latest piece in our thought leadership series – Stronger together: Health supply chain voices – comes from Rebecca Alban, senior manager and team lead at VillageReach. She explains which investments represent best value for money for countries and donors.
Pouring Cash into a Leaky Bucket or Aligning Private Sector Financing with Impact?
Why pharmaceutical channel partners need more than better access to capital to deliver results Half the African population still lacks access to safe, effective, quality and affordable health products. In response, donors and development partners are collaborating with financial institutions to design new mechanisms...
Turning Digital Health Failures into Future Success
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” Henry Ford. As development aid continues to tighten, global health initiatives face growing pressure to deliver impact in smarter, more sustainable ways. This article draws on real-world examples from diverse regions to...
OPINION: From Aid Dependency to Sustainable Systems: The Promise of Outsourcing for Self-Reliant PHSC
As the global health funding landscape shifts, many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face an uncomfortable truth: their health systems are too dependent on external support to operate and function. Public health supply chains (PHSCs) in Africa exemplify this dependence as the warehousing operations,...
What WHA78 Tells Us About Supply Chains in Africa
As the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA78) convened in Geneva, the global health community faced a critical inflection point. Discussions focused on what it will take to prevent the next pandemic, rebuild public trust and create more equitable health systems. For African countries, the...
Self-Reliance and Sustainability through Local Private Sector Engagement
This blog is the third installment in a three-part series designed to engage stakeholders in our new position paper, “Increasing Local Private Sector Engagement in LMIC Public Health Systems”. This in-depth paper identifies the need to integrate private sector Ecosystem Services & Products into public health systems, outlines the major...
The Way There: Maintaining Health Product Quality in Transit
Increasing access to essential medicines and vaccines is critical to achieving universal health coverage. This, of course, is no simple task, especially in Africa where the challenges, both logistical and financial, are real,1 and the solutions are complex and varied. But to truly ensure...
Supply Chain Leadership Across Africa: Increasing Private Sector Engagement for Quality Healthcare
Originally posted on Supply Chain Now. Supply Chain Now continues the popular series, Supply Chain Leadership Across Africa, as host Scott Luton explores how increasing private sector engagement is reshaping access to health care across Africa, particularly when it comes to affordable, quality medicines....
Jumping Hurdles: Removing Blockers to Increase PSE
This blog is the second installment in a three-part series to engage stakeholders by focusing on sections of our new position paper, “Increasing Local Private Sector Engagement in LMIC Public Health Systems”. This in-depth paper identifies the need to integrate private sector Ecosystem Services & Products into public health systems,...Background
VillageReach provides Advisory Services, packages of technical assistance services, to innovators. These advisory services are designed to help innovators then align their products and services innovations with African government public health system priorities, needs and context. We define innovators as organizations—startups or established entities—that introduce new or unfamiliar products, services, or processes to the public health system.
Aligning innovations to public health systems is critical for sustainable impact. Innovators often encounter common key challenges affecting their ability to provide products and services in low- and middle-income countries. Our Advisory Services are developed to help innovators navigate these challenges within a specific country context.
VillageReach offers Advisory Services to innovators, including startups, in Africa looking to provide products/services to the public health sector. We offer Advisory Service packages for both innovators and their customers (i.e., government, donors and technical partners).
Resources
From Commitment to Inclusion: Communities as Co-Architects of Africa’s Health
How Telehealth Hotlines and Kiosks Improved Access to Care in Lagos, Nigeria
Community Health Workers at the Center of Mozambique’s 2026 Health Reform
Building Responsive, Integrated Health Supply Chains in Africa: Achievements and Lessons from the Supply Chain Integrators Investment
Measuring the impact of integrating private distributors in public health supply chains
Why Funding Alone Won’t Scale Health Innovation
From Ambition to Implementation – The Use of Outsourced Transport to Deliver Polio Lab Samples
Building the Foundations for Responsive Primary Health Care: A Practical Guide for Policymakers
Newsletter- Strengthening Lab Transport to Stop Outbreaks – First Edition -2025
Policy Brief: Transforming Health Finance
Scaling Innovation: Mozambique Transport Case Study Summary
Transport Quality Management – Technical Assistance Toolkit
Private Distributors Integration into Public Health Supply Chains (PHSC) – Benchmarking Results
Outsourced Logistics Gap Assessment
Our Support To Innovators
VillageReach’ priority is to support innovators who are already at the Expansion and Sustainable Growth phases.
Our focus is due to the critical importance of sustainability for health systems in Africa. Innovators at these two phases are more likely to meet the time-to-impact and sustainability needs because: (a) they offer solutions with proven results and (b) have sufficient critical mass to engage with public health systems effectively.
If you are interested in working with us, please complete our Innovator Support Request Form or contact innovator.TA@villagereach.org
Related Global Impact
See the latest updates from our work to improve access to quality healthcare in the world’s most underserved communities.