Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a $33 billion annual financing gap for providing reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health to women and girls across the globe. And as health systems struggled to respond to the pandemic while continuing to provide lifesaving routine services, many ministries of health had to look beyond the public health system to private health providers, according to the World Health Organization.
Yet, these private health providers often lack the financing needed to bring their solutions and services to scale. Devex sat down with Carmen Villar, the vice president of social business innovation, MSD, to learn more about how her team is working to not only bridge the financing gap for maternal and child services but also how it supports the social entrepreneurs revolutionizing the private health sector in many of the low- and middle-income countries.
“With our social impact investing portfolio, we look at a couple of different things … how are we advancing sustainable global health solutions? How are we supporting the small businesses or small entrepreneurs that have great ideas that we know can really advance the health sector, but just need that capital to get going?” Villar said.
To date, MSD has worked with multiple funds and direct investments to channel millions of dollars into innovative small startups and businesses working to address these underlying barriers to health, she explained. Through the work of MSD’s social business innovation team, Villar is hoping to not only advance the company’s environmental, social, and governance — or ESG — strategy, but also to advance health equity through improved access.
About the author
Devex Partnerships
Thanks for reading and for your interest in Devex. In collaboration with our partners, Devex’s partnerships editorial team produces content to promote a partner’s work or perspectives on a particular issue. It gives actors across the global development sector — including nongovernmental organizations, private sector stakeholders, aid agencies and government institutions — the opportunity to go beyond traditional advertising and tell their stories in an impactful way. If you’d like to learn more about how you can shine a spotlight on a particular issue with Devex, please email partnerships@devex.com. We look forward to hearing from you.
