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 sector in developing countries:

1. 1. Limited data on the role of the private sector in health delivery.
2. 2. An inefficient flow of information between funders and entrepreneurs.
3. 3. Bias towards public health systems during policy creation and implementation.
4. 4. Limited government capacity to engage the private sector.
5. 5. An overall lack of funding for the private health sector. 
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In an effort to address these barriers, the country study team has thus far:

1. 1. Surveyed 730 providers of health services across seven districts.
2. 2. Conducted an assessment of the demand for these same goods and services.
3. 3. Identified market failures and any binding constraints.
4. 4. Reviewed the existing policy, institutional successes, and regulatory environment.
5. 5. Engaged in consensus and ownership building with stakeholders.
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As part of our efforts to ensure broad ownership of the assessment results, a 3-day engagement workshop was held on the 14th - 16th of December, 2009 to present data to stakeholders, identify gaps, and begin to formulate recommendations. The stakeholders included representatives from the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, National Health Insurance Administration, Parliament, the Ministry of Finance, regulatory bodies, private provider and professional associations, as well as international development partners. This was the second in a series of three planned as part of the assessment. The final workshop is tentatively scheduled for early 2010.