Zambia’s public health sector carries an immense burden. With millions relying on government clinics for HIV testing and treatment, long wait times and resource constraints can sometimes deter patients from seeking care. However, a vast network of private clinics, pharmacies, and health centers exists that—if properly supported—could share this load.
This is the core of the “Total Market Approach” (TMA) championed by CHZ under the USAID ZAM-Health project. We recognized that private health facilities play a critical role in the health ecosystem, but many lack the business management skills required to stay operational. A clinic that cannot manage its cash flow cannot restock essential medicines, and a pharmacy that cannot track inventory cannot serve its community.
The Solution: The Business Advisory Program (BAP) To address this, CHZ launched the Business Advisory Program (BAP). This initiative was designed to treat health facilities not just as service points, but as sustainable small enterprises. We moved beyond clinical training to provide “MBA-style” capacity building for doctors, nurses, and pharmacists in the private sector.
The curriculum focused on entrepreneurship, financial planning, inventory management, and operational efficiency. The goal was simple: make these businesses profitable and stable so they can reliably offer HIV services for the long term, without constant donor support.
Delivering Impact at Scale The results of this investment have been transformative. CHZ successfully strengthened the capacity of 221 private health facilities, pharmacies, and hospitals. These facilities have now become critical nodes in the national HIV response.
By empowering the private sector, we achieved massive service delivery numbers outside of government facilities:
- Testing: These private partners tested 62,446 individuals for HIV, far exceeding our initial targets.
- Prevention: We distributed over 3,480 HIV self-test kits and enrolled 5,342 individuals on PrEP through private channels.
Why This Matters Every patient seen in a private facility is one less patient standing in line at a public clinic. This decongestion allows the government to focus its resources on the most vulnerable, while the private sector offers a convenient, sustainable alternative for those who can access it. This is the definition of a resilient health system.