Social Franchising

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Social Franchising

Social franchising is defined as a system of contractual relationships “usually run by a non-governmental organization which uses the structure of a commercial franchise to achieve social goals” (Montagu 2002). The definition can further be expanded to mean:

The social franchise is an adaptation of a commercial franchise in which the developer of a successfully tested social concept (franchisor) enables others (franchisees) to replicate the model using the tested system and brand name to achieve a social benefit.

One essential element is to belong to a network of franchises and in this network the coordinator (franchisor) is responsible for bringing harmony and concordance to the network and ensure consistency among the health service providers (Prata 2005; Perrot 2006). Often in social franchising the services are subsidized so that the recipient of services has a lower out-of-pocket payment. The elements that typify a social franchising package are: Training,Protocolized management, Standardization of supplies and services, Branding, Monitoring, and Network membership.

Franchising for clinical services can be further categorized according to model and the strength of the network:

· Stand-alone model: provides exclusively franchised supported services or commodities

· Fractional model: services are added to a practice that existed before the franchising operation and only a portion of the services are from the franchise

· First generation franchising where the franchiser offer a territory and use of franchising within the guidelines.

· Second generation franchising includes first part and active monitoring and control (creating a tighter, more structured, more regulated network) (Stephenson 2004)

Sources: Montagu D (2002) Franchising of health services in developing countries. Health Policy and Planning, 17(2): 121-130.

Perrot J (2006) Different approaches to contracting in health systems. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 84(11): 859-866.

Prata N, Monagu D, Jeffrys E (2005) Private sector, human resources and health franchising in Africa, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 83(4): 274-279.

Stephenson R, Ong Tsui A, Sulzbach S, Bardsley P, Bekele G, Giday T, Ahmed R, Gopalkrishnan G, Feyesitan B (2004) Franchising Reproductive Health Services. Health Services Research, 39(6 Pt 2): 2053–2080