Although much of the attention on health care in sub-Saharan Africa centers on government activity, the private sector plays a surprisingly significant and growing role in meeting the region’s health care needs. Indeed, our research, conducted in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that the increasing demand for health care due to improved economic growth across much of the region could translate into $20 billion of additional investment in the region’s private-sector health care infrastructure in the coming decade.

To understand how the private health sector (by which we mean all nonpublic health care activity¹) might better complement Africa’s public health systems, we studied the health care sectors of 45 sub-Saharan African countries.² The findings suggest opportunities for private enterprise to help improve the region’s woefully poor health outcomes.³ At the same time, the research also highlights challenges—such as inconsistent quality of care, health worker shortages, and inadequate regulation—that must be addressed if the private sector is to most effectively benefit the health of Africa’s people.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s private health sector is already large and diverse. Of the $16.7 billion in total health expenditures in 2005, about...