Uzbekistan’s first healthcare PPP – implemented by the Ministry of Health with the advisory support from the IFC – wins the IJGlobal ESG Social Infrastructure Award with one judge lauding it as “truly innovative” and “delivering real, life-saving impacts”.

One judge said: “Uzbekistan's first international healthcare and IFC-aligned PPP – responding to the needs of patients requiring dialysis – has gone above and beyond in seeking to address the challenges of those most vulnerable in remote and low-income regions.

“It has achieved this by establishing a home-based peritoneal dialysis service that is a replicable and scalable tender process that will secure wider sector impact.”

Uzbekistan’s first healthcare PPP stands as an innovative, market-changing PPP that will increase patients’ access to life-saving services.

Rural patients will particularly benefit from the project with the introduction of the country's first-ever peritoneal dialysis service, a treatment that enables patients to receive dialysis care in their own homes.

This will reduce travel time and costs for families and extend the reach of dialysis care to rural and remote areas, an important innovation for the country.

The treatment of around 1,100 new patients every year will make a transformative change, providing access to treatment to those who previously would have been missed. The success of this project is already having an effect on the Uzbekistan’s growing health sector and future PPPs in the country.

Innovations

This project was innovative in many ways, not least because it was the first international healthcare PPP in Uzbekistan, the first PPP to be implemented under the country’s 2019 PPP law, and the first ever performance-based contract in the healthcare sector (previously, dialysis units were not held accountable and did not follow medical guidelines prescribed by law).

All of these firsts required significant engagement across the government and health sector stakeholders, building a foundation of consultation and cooperation that will support the next wave of healthcare PPPs.

The submission states: “To overcome potential delays due to Covid-19, IFC designed a submission process that allowed the government to receive technical and financial proposals using a virtual platform, while ensuring transparency and openness of the process.

“For the first time in Uzbekistan – and the Central Asia region – the government accepted to follow an electronic PPP proposal submission process.

“This required detailed instructions and manuals on the virtual tender process to be designed and multiple trainings for bidders – ministry of health, ministry of finance, the PPP agency, and the tender commission – to be carried out to ensure a smooth tender using this new approach.”

The project will have a wider impact that goes beyond this single transaction. Due to the success of this project, the government plans to replicate it across the country and has several new health PPPs under preparation for oncology, hospital infrastructure, and diagnostics – proving the impact, replicability and scalability of this PPP.