In Ghana today, about half of both rural and urban residents obtain health services from the private sector. Though only limited evidence is available on the quality of private care, an effectively regulated private health sector can potentially play an important role in the provision of health services. Under the guidance of Ghana's Ministry of Health and with financing from the World Bank Group, Results for Development has teamed with three other international organizations (Bitran y Asociados, CHeSS and ACET) to initiate a large-scale assessment of the current state of the private health sector. Our ultimate goal is to present concrete, actionable recommendations to the national government.

R4D's previous work on health systems has identified several key barriers to successfully harnessing the private...