This document assesses the currentimportance and potential of the private sector incontributing to child health. In many countries private andnon-governmental providers are more commonly consulted forchild health illnesses than public providers are. Even poorfamilies often use private sector services. Families spendrelatively large amounts of money for curative services inthe private sector, even when there are cheaper publicsector alternatives available. However, in many settingsprivate providers are poorly regulated and the technicalquality of the services they provide is questionable. Thisdocument focuses on the role of the private sector in thedirect provision of child health services. The privatesector clearly has a much broader potential role in manyother areas related to and supporting the provision of childhealth services-including the provision of ancillaryservices, training of health professionals (both pre-serviceand in-service), communication services, and financing ofhealth care. The potential of the private sector in each ofthese areas is touched on in this document, but a detailedtreatment of each of these important topics is beyond thescope of the paper. Financing of health care and services isa particularly complex topic. In most countries, the privatesector has an important role to play in financing bothrecurrent health service costs and investment costs.
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