Guide to Rules & Regulations Reform to Expand Private-Sector Participation in Markets for Family Planning and Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Products and Services

The project uses a market development approach (MDA) that focuses on identifying and addressing the root causes of underperformance in core market functions in order to achieve sustainable changes to supply and demand. The private sector operates alongside the public sector in low- and middle-income countries to deliver key health products and services, including for family planning and MNCH. Governments have an important role to play in engaging the private sector to ensure more equitable access to such products and services, by creating an enabling policy environment through an effective regulatory framework. FHM Engage supports developing country governments, donors, and their implementing partners in strengthening local health markets to ensure more equitable provision of and access to family planning and MNCH products and services. The Pathway to Impact has four phases: Diagnose, Design, Deliver, and Adapt & Learn. The Diagnose phase involves analyzing the impact of existing rules and regulations on the operation and performance of market actors. The Design phase involves reforming rules and regulations to enable market actors to expand their operations and improve their performance while safeguarding population health. The Deliver phase involves implementing the reforms in collaboration with market actors. The Adapt and Learn phase involves adapting and learning from the implementation of the reforms to enable further market development. The market system is composed of supporting functions, rules and regulations, and norms that collectively determine how market actors on both the demand and supply sides behave and perform, the incentives they respond to, and the ways they are held accountable. The supporting functions include stewardship, financing, market intelligence and information, and access to finance. Rules and regulations encompass policies, laws, and regulations issued by public authorities as well as rules, guidelines, and standards issued by professional associations and industry bodies. Norms are informal rules that govern the behavior of individuals, groups, and societies and are products of local culture, religious traditions, value systems, cultural practices, and other factors. This document explains how to apply the findings that emerge from using the Guide to Rules, Regulations, and Norms Analysis. The methods, approaches, and findings in this document draw on data collected through a desk review, key informant interviews, and consultative meetings with FHM Engage technical leaders. A desk review search methodology was used that focused on peer-reviewed and grey literature from the past 10 years. Key informant interviews were conducted with 14 experts with multi-country experience in regulatory reforms relating to family planning and/or MNCH market systems. Thematic content analysis was used to identify key themes emerging from the review and the interviews. The companion Guide to Rules, Regulations, and Norms Analysis focuses on understanding the core operations of the market for family planning products and services. This involves closely examining the supporting functions, rules and regulations, and norms that shape and influence the market as well as the institutional arrangements that govern the market. The Guide to Rules, Regulations, and Norms Analysis provides a step-by-step approach to analyzing the rules, regulations, and norms that affect local markets for family planning and MNCH products and services. The Pathway to Impact process is a framework for reforming rules and regulations to improve access to family planning and MNCH products and services in private pharmacies and drug shops. The framework involves identifying barriers to private-sector participation in family planning and MNCH markets, designing reforms of the rules and regulations to enable market actors to expand their operations and improve their performance, and delivering the reforms in collaboration with market actors. The framework also involves adapting and learning from the implementation of the reforms to enable further market development. The Pathway to Impact process is a critical component of FHM Engage's efforts to strengthen local health markets and improve access to family planning and MNCH products and services. The process is designed to be flexible and adaptable to the specific needs and contexts of different countries and markets. By providing a framework for reforming rules and regulations, the Pathway to Impact process can help to create an enabling policy environment that supports the growth and development of local health markets.