A sustainable, gender-sensitive, pro-poor social enterprise is helping Bangladesh get closer to achieving universal health coverage.
Transforming a Network of Donor-Dependent Clinics into a Financially Sustainable Social Enterprise .
Technical Brief | September 23, 2024
With USAID's support, the Surjer Hashi Network has made impressive progress toward building a viable business to advance universal health coverage in Bangladesh.
Under the USAID Advancing Universal Health Coverage (AUHC) activity, the Surjer Hashi Network (SHN), a private network of health facilities in Bangladesh, aimed to transition from a donor-dependent social franchise to a financially viable private chain of clinics. By the close of the project, cost recovery at the network level increased from 35% in 2019 to 76.6% in 2023, and the 35 top-performing facilities achieved 112% aggregated cost recovery in 2023. While it continues to work toward becoming financially sustainable, SHN is delivering on its mission to provide high-quality, customer-oriented, and affordable healthcare to all. This paper describes the adjustments SHN made to improve financial sustainability and several paths forward for SHN.